Miller has 6 RBI, Tigers rout Eagles 16-1 to even weekend series
Auburn bounced back in a big way after Friday's loss, rolling to a blowout win to set up Sunday's rubber match.
A day after slugging four home runs in a comfortable 8-2 series-opening win, No. 18 Boston College had no answers for Tyler Miller and Auburn.
Miller extended his multi-hit streak to four with a two-run single to chase Eagles’ right-handed starter Emmet Sheehan in the third. Then he added another RBI with a single off of right-hander Joe Mancini. Then he hit a three-run home run that went 406 feet to right off of right-hander John West.
Cam Hill clubbed a grand slam in the first, Steven Williams added a solo homer, and Rankin Woley closed the afternoon with a seventh-inning home run as the Tigers went on to rout the Eagles, 16-1, on Saturday to even the three-game weekend series.
Miller, who now has 12 hits in his last 14 at bats, finished 3-for-3 with three runs and six RBIs. Auburn (7-3) had contributions from up and down the lineup en route to the hefty win over a ranked opponent.
"What we've done is dug out of a hole and we'll call it step one at this point, but there's much more work to do," head coach Butch Thompson told reporters after the game. "We played good baseball and got off to a good start today, but I don't think we're going to be satisfied until we figure out a way we can hopefully win this series."
The Eagles (7-2, 2-1 Atlantic Coast), who had nine hits and were all over the Tigers’ Friday night starter Richard Fitts the day prior, couldn’t solve Auburn’s Mason Barnett. The sophomore right-hander went 5 1/3 innings and gave up one unearned run, scattering two hits and two walks while striking out three. BC managed just three hits in the lopsided loss, the fewest for the team by far this season.
A lack of offense was one contributing factor, but the other was an early hole dug by Sheehan on the mound. The junior had spun back-to-back quality starts to open the year, but immediately ran into trouble on Saturday.
He got two quick outs, but then issued consecutive walks to Williams, Woley, and Miller and loaded the bases. That warranted a mound visit from Eagles’ pitching coach Alex Trezza, but the inning only unraveled from there. Bryson Ware hit a dribbler against the shift that scored a run, then Hill launched a grand slam to right-center field to put the hosts up 5-0.
Sheehan bounced back with a 1-2-3 second, but a walk, hit batsmen, and single chased him in the third. He was charged with eight runs, all earned, on just three hits while walking four. It was a tough outing for the junior, who entered having allowed just two runs in 12 innings along with a 6:1 K/BB ratio.
The Eagles’ bullpen turned in mixed results. Mancini went two innings and gave up a two-run home run to Williams and a RBI single to Miller in the fourth. West took over in the fifth and an error from first baseman Jack Cunningham was the pulling of a thread that unraveled for a big inning for Auburn. That run came around to score on a Ryan Bliss single, and then, with two outs, West hit a batter and surrendered a three-run home run to Miller.
BC scored its lone run in the sixth. Frelick, the last batter Barnett would face, worked a one-out walk. He moved to second after Cody Morissette drew a walk from Auburn reliever Carson Swilling, went to third on a fielders choice, and scored on a passed ball. That only cut the deficit to 14 runs, though, and the Tigers’ duo of Swilling and Hayden Mullins kept it scoreless the rest of the way.
Eagles’ freshman Brad Lombardi made his collegiate debut in the seventh alongside full-scale substitutions for BC’s lineup. With fellow underclassmen Parker Landwehr behind the plate, Lombardi got two quick outs on three pitches but was tagged for a solo home run from Woley to cap the scoring at 16-1. Samrath Singh was the only Eagles’ pitcher to avoid allowing a run, striking out two in a scoreless eighth.
UP NEXT
The series is on the line today at 2 p.m. ET in a game that will be televised on SEC Network Plus. Auburn’s listed starter is Trace Bright, a 6-foot-4 right-hander who’s allowed just one earned run in 11 innings with 10 strikeouts. BC has Joe Vetrano (0-0, 7.71 ERA) listed, likely as an opener for Alex Stiegler (1-0, 1.08 ERA).
Images courtesy of Auburn Athletics.