Baseball falls to Indiana Sunday

[aubiefifty 16,888]

Auburn falls to Indiana on Sunday to drop Game 3

Jason Caldwell

4–5 minutes

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AUBURN, Alabama—A transfer from Western Kentucky where he had started just four games, Indiana starting pitcher Luke Sinnard was the story of Sunday’s game at Plainsman Park as he allowed just one run on five hits in five innings in an 11-2 Hoosier win over the Auburn Tigers to salvage game three of the series. Hunter Jessee had four hits for the Hoosiers while Carter Mathison's first inning grand slam proved to be all Indiana would need on this day.

One of the few bright spots of the day for the Tigers was the pitching of true freshman Zach Crotchfelt. Coming on in relief with Auburn down big, the New Jersey native pitched three and one/thirds innings of scoreless baseball before Indiana plated two runs off reliever Hayden Murphy. While his line finished with two earned runs allowed in three and two/thirds innings, Crotchfelt showed the ability to compete said coach Butch Thompson.

"It was the confidence," Thompson said. "He had it and he went after them. He threw more than one pitch for a strike. A secondary pitch was landing. The fastball was fouled off late and got on guys. I thought for a time and a half through the lineup, that was very competitive."

Other than Crotchfelt’s outing there wasn’t much to be happy about for the veteran coach. Bryson Ware had three hits for the Tigers while true freshman Ike Irish added two hits on a day when Auburn had just eight total hits as a team.

Bryson Ware had three hits on Sunday for the Tigers. (Photo: Jason Caldwell/Auburnundercover, 247Sports)

Making his first career appearance, Auburn true freshman Drew Nelson will want to forget his first game experience at Plainsman Park. After getting a ground ball for the first out of the game, Nelson would retire just one more batter in his outing and left the game trailing 4-0 in the first following the Mathison grand slam. Going just two/thirds of an inning, Nelson allowed four runs on just two hits, but walked three and hit a batter to take the loss.

Up four runs early, Indiana added a single run in the second off reliever Christian Herberholz and three more in the third when Parker Carlson came on in relief.

Trailing 8-0, Auburn finally got on the board in the bottom of the fourth inning and the two hitting stars of the day were both involved. Leading off the inning, Irish singled for one of his two hits on the day. With two outs, Kason Howell singled to keep the inning going and bring Ware to the plate. 

Staying hot to open the year, Ware singled home Irish to put Auburn on the board and give them some life, but that would be all the Tigers did against Sinnard the rest of the way.

Indiana finished things off early by scoring two runs in the seventh and another in the eighth to take a 10-run lead. Auburn's Justin Kirby added his second home run of the weekend when he blasted a solo shot in the bottom of the eighth, but that would be it as Auburn dropped the Sunday contest.

Seven Auburn pitchers combined to allow 11 runs on 14 hits in Sunday's game. Only true freshman Hayden Murphy and redshirt freshman Trevor Horne didn't allow a run. Murphy pitched two/thirds of an inning while Horne pitched the final one and two/thirds for the Tigers.

"I think we walked seven guys today," Thompson said. "If you're doing that and getting hit, that's a poor recipe for trying to get much done. It never happened today."

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Auburn returns to action on Tuesday night at 6 p.m. against UNA at Toyota Field in Huntsville.

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