FROM BUNTING TO BOMBS: Jax State baseball overwhelms No. 15 Auburn
· Yahoo Sports
Jacksonville State’s baseball team earned a signature win Tuesday night at Plainsman Park, defeating 15th-ranked Auburn, 15-4, in eight innings.
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Jax State head coach Steve Bieser said he wanted to put pressure on the Tigers early, and Jaxon Pate, Caleb Johnson and Cooper Blauser executed his plan flawlessly.
Pate led off the game with a bunt single and advanced to second base on a throwing error by Auburn starting pitcher Christian Chatterton. Johnson followed with another bunt single, putting runners on the corners with no outs.
Cooper Blauser, the Gamecocks’ three-hole hitter, laid down a bunt as well, allowing Pate to score the game’s first run.
“Those are two guys, with Pate and CJ, that have excellent speed. They’ve just got to get a solid bunt down and really put some pressure on them,” Bieser said. “And then you get to the point where you want to make sure that you get on the board first, and with Cooper there, it was just a good spot for him to try it as well.”
It may have started with small ball, but Jax State (28-6) quickly showed its power, as cleanup hitter Brady Thomas followed with a two-run home run to right field.
The Gamecocks were just getting started. They added two more runs in the third inning, two in the fifth and three in the sixth to take a commanding 10-0 lead.
Three Jax State pitchers combined to keep Auburn (22-10) off the board over the first five innings.
Ryan Geraghty, who was credited with his first win of the season, got the start and was excellent during his two innings on the mound, striking out six while allowing only a walk and a hit by pitch.
Relief pitcher Josh Sibley gave up a walk and a single to start the third before settling down, getting a groundout and two strikeouts to escape the jam. Jud Files pitched the fourth and the fifth, allowing one hit and one walk while striking out three.
“I thought Geraghty was a good tone-setter. His stuff was really plus tonight. It was hard to take him out. I wanted to keep him short enough to make sure he could help us in big situations this weekend. But he got us rolling right, and then you’ve got Sibley, and Jud Files really came in and did a good job after that,” Bieser said. “We kept them off the board for the first five there and just kept on motoring on the offensive side. Guys were really seeing the ball well and swinging the bat well.”
Auburn scratched four runs across against Maddox McDougall in the bottom of the sixth, but the Gamecocks weren’t fazed. They continued to pile on the runs with three more in the seventh and two in the eighth.
Blauser, whose lone hit was a three-run double in the top of the sixth inning, led Jax State with five RBIs on Tuesday night. The junior second baseman also stole team-leading 17th base of the season and scored two runs.
“That’s team baseball,” Bieser said. “You get a sac fly, you get a sac bunt, you know, just playing the game and finding a way to put runs on the board there.”
What to know
—Seven of Jax State’s nine starters had multi-hit performances. Thomas and Grayson Ashe each finished the night with three hits, three RBIs and two runs scored. Ashe hit a two-run homer, his team-leading seventh of the season, in the top of the fifth inning.
—Johnson, Pate, Trey King, Greg LaChance and Luke Williams all finished with two hits. Johnson stole his 16th base of the season and scored three runs, while Pate doubled and scored two runs. King doubled and contributed two runs and one RBI, and LaChance and Williams scored one run apiece.
—Chase Horst shut the Tigers down after their four-run outburst in the sixth inning, striking out three while allowing two hits and two walks over 2⅓ scoreless innings.
Next up
—Jax State, which leads the Conference USA standings with a 12-0 record, will travel to Lynchburg, Va., for a three-game weekend series with second-place Liberty (9-3). The two teams will play Friday at 5 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m., and Sunday at noon.