Fletcher Smokes Three Home Runs And Drives In Six In Auburn’s 12-7 Win

[AUSportTalk 4]

Brian Fletcher tied a school record by hitting home runs

in each of his first three trips to the plate and Paul Burnside earned

his first win in almost two years as Auburn bounced back from Tuesday’s

5-2 defeat with a 12-7 win over South Alabama at Plainsman Park on

Wednesday night. Fletcher finished the night a perfect 4-for-4 at the

plate, drove in a career-high six runs, stole home and became the first

Auburn player since Josh Etheredge in 1996 to hit three homers in a

single game.

“It was one of those games for me,” Fletcher said. “I was seeing the

ball really well and hitting it really well, and that’s just a good

feeling. It’s real important to get off to a good start like we did

tonight. Going into this weekend with South Carolina, we need all the

momentum we can get.”

Auburn (24-13) staked Burnside to a 9-1 lead after two innings, scoring

six times off of a combined three South Alabama pitchers in the first

inning, sending eight men to the plate before an out was recorded, and

then added three more in the second to give Burnside all he needed to

pick up his first win since April 20, 2007 over Alabama.

“When you score six runs in the first inning and three in the second,

you gain a lot of confidence,” Auburn Head Coach John Pawlowski said.

“You like to see kids that work really hard do things like that.

(Fletcher) has been spending a lot of time in the cages and been doing a

lot of extra work. We are going to need that confidence going into this

weekend at South Carolina.”

Trent Mummey and Joseph Sanders’ back-to-back home runs preceded

Fletcher’s first-inning homer, giving Auburn five in the game and upping

the season total to 79 on the season. Combined with Fletcher’s

first-inning three-run shot, Auburn has now had five five-homer games

and a pair of three-homer innings this season.

The middle three in Auburn’s batting order (Sanders, Ben Jones and

Hunter Morris) finished the game with six of Auburn’s 13 hits with each

collecting two hits and scoring two runs.

Down 1-0 after South Alabama (15-20) scored on a Adam Heisler RBI

fielder’s choice in the top of the first, Auburn battered South Alabama

starter Brandon Brown (1-3) for four runs on two hits and two walks,

knocking him from the game in the midst of Ben Jones’ at bat following

three straight balls.

Justin Hargett, who finished the night without a hit to snap his 10-game

hitting streak, drew a leadoff walk, setting the stage for Mummey’s 13th

home run of the season. Sanders followed with his 17th home run of the

season, the fourth time Auburn has hit back-to-back first-inning homers

this season.

Sanders’ 17th home run placed him into Auburn’s single-season top 10,

tying him with Doug Gilcrease (1982) and Bo Jackson (1985) for ninth on

the list, five behind school record holder Todd Faulkner’s 22 from 2000.

Things didn’t get for South Alabama when Michael Raia relieved Brown as

he finished off a walk to Jones after entering with a 3-0 count on the

cleanup hitter, allowed a single to Morris and the first of Fletcher’s

three run home runs to make it 6-1 Auburn.

After Burnside worked around a leadoff double in the second, the Auburn

hitters went back to work in the bottom half of the inning as Sanders

hit a one-out double, went to third on a Jones groundout and scored on a

wild pitch. A walk to Morris preceded Fletcher’s second blast, putting

Auburn up 9-1.

Burnside (1-2) worked into the sixth inning for just the second time

this season and left having allowed five runs on eight hits and two

walks, striking out four as South Alabama scored two times in the third

and once in the fourth to narrow the margin to 9-4.

“It’s been a while since I have been able to go this deep into a game

but it’s a little easier when your hitters put up nine runs in the ftwo innings.

It’s just your job to throw strikes and prevent big innings

after that,” Burnside said. “Hopefully we can carry this win into this

weekend and a tough road series.”

Fletcher’s leadoff home run in the fifth upped the lead to 10-4 but

South Alabama refused to go down easy, scoring a run in the sixth on a

Derek O’Reilly RBI single after Burnside turned things over to Chris

O’Neil with two men on and one out in the sixth to cut the lead to

10-5.

South Alabama scored twice more off of O’Neil in the seventh as Heisler

doubled and scored on a Ryan Bohanon double and David Doss reached on an

error and scored on a Jake Overstreet bases-loaded walk.

Zach Blatt and Austin Hubbard combined to throw the final 2 2/3 innings

for Auburn with Blatt entering with the bases loaded and one out in the

seventh, recording a strikeout and a groundout to thwart the South

Alabama rally.

Hubbard picked up his eighth save by relieving Blatt in the eighth with

men on first and third following a walk and an error and Auburn leading

11-7, retiring six of the eight men he faced, including the first four

by strikeout, to move into Auburn’s single-season and career top 10 for

saves with eight.

Fletcher’s seventh-inning steal of home that made it 11-7 was Auburn’s

first successful steal of home since Clete Thomas did it against UAB on

April 6, 2004.

Morris’ RBI two-out double in the bottom of the eighth that scored Jones

from first put the night’s final run on the board.

Auburn returns to Southeastern Conference action this weekend at South

Carolina. Game times are 6pm CT on Friday, 3pm on Saturday and 12:30 pm

on Sunday. Saturday’s game will be televised live on SportsSouth.

[Jackson-Sullivan 0]

Great way to bounce back and get a win.  Keep an eye on Austin Hubbard.  He is really starting to put things together and could be huge for us down the stretch!