Hughey Strikes Out 11 as Auburn Beats Alabama, 7-1
4/17/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
|
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Auburn left-hander Arnold Hughey struck out a career-high 11 batters in leading No. 12 Auburn to an easy 6-1 win over the University of Alabama in front of the largest paid of the season 5,824 fans at Sewell-Thomas Stadium.
The win gives Auburn its first series win over Alabama in Tuscaloosa since 1994. Auburn has won the first two games of the series with Alabama here at Sewell-Thomas Stadium for the first time since 1991.
Hughey (6-1) won his second straight SEC road game and held Alabama to just one run and seven hits en route to the first complete game of the season by an Auburn pitcher, leaving Georgia and Arkansas as the only SEC teams without a complete game. In addition to 10 strikeouts, Hughey walked only one batter -- a two-out walk to Zac Welch in the ninth inning.
With the exception of the third inning, Alabama generated nothing against Hughey in losing its second straight game to the Tigers and its third straight SEC games.
The Crimson Tide has lost all five SEC series this season and eight in-a-row dating back to last year. In addition, Alabama has lost nine of its last 11 SEC home games and has lost four consecutive home SEC series.
The Tigers have won all three SEC road series this season, beating Tennessee, Ole Miss and Alabama. In addition, Auburn becomes the first road team since 1997 to win an Alabama-Auburn series away from home. The Crimson Tide took two of three at Plainsman Park in 1997.
Alabama (22-15, 4-10 SEC) managed only three singles after the third inning off the AU lefty. Hughey struck out the side in the sixth inning and at one point fanned six of nine UA batters.
Auburn (26-11, 8-6 SEC) scored all the runs it would need in the top of the third inning to take a 3-0 lead. Derek Sain singled right field with one out and moved to second on a balk by Brandon Belcher. Belcher then bounced back to strikeout Kyle Mayo, but struggled as the next five Auburn batters reached base, with three walks and an error.
After a passed ball send Sain to third base, Ben Sprague drew a two-out walk and Sean Gamble smashed a hard ground ball up the middle for an RBI single. Chuck Jeroloman drew a walk to load the bases and Tug Hulett reached on a throwing error by third baseman Evan Bush and Sprague scored the first of two unearned runs on the error.
Josh Bell drew the third two-out walk of the inning to score Gamble from third to give AU a three-run lead. Belcher threw 32 pitches in the three-run third inning and 24 of those pitches came with two outs.
Alabama answered with a run in the bottom of the third inning to cut the lead to 3-1. Junior second baseman Allen Rice and freshman right fielder Michael McCallister reached on back-to-back one out singles. After Rice was picked off in a run-down between second and third, junior shortstop Rocky Sceflo singled to center to score McCallister with the first run of the game.
Auburn padded its lead with a run in the fifth inning without the benefit of a hit. Sprague drew a lead walk and advanced to second on Belcher's second balk of the game. Gamble's fly ball to center moved Sprague to third base. Belcher bounced back to strike out Jeroloman, but the ball got away from catcher Nick Richardson, allowing Sprague to score from third. Jeroloman was put out at first on the play and Hulett lined out to Scelfo at short to end the inning.
Auburn added two more runs in the sixth inning to knock Belcher out of the game. Clete Thomas and Josh Sullivan drew back-to-back, one-out walks as Belcher exited game.
Sophomore right-hander Matt Downs got a ground out from Derek Sain, but then yielded a two-run double to Kyle Mayo to score both Thomas and Sullivan.
Belcher was charged with six runs and two hits in 5 1/3 innings. He walked a season-high six batters and added four strikeouts. He added two balks and one wild pitch. Four the six Auburn walks came around to score in the game.
Downs allowed one run on five hits in 3 2/3 innings of relief and also allowed both inherited runners to score in the sixth inning.
Thomas doubled to open the eighth inning and scored on Sain's one-out single to give the Tigers a 7-1 lead.
Both teams scratched out seven hits in the game. Gamble and Sain led Auburn with two hits each, while Scelfo and Richardson had two hits each for Alabama.
The series concludes with a 2:06 p.m. Sunday afternoon at the Joe. The game will be regionally televised by Comcast Sports Southeast. Alabama will send junior lefty Taylor Tankersley (1-2, 2.00 ERA) against Auburn sophomore right-hander Josh Bell (2-0, 1.27 ERA).
GAME NOTES:
*Junior shortstop Rocky Scelfo's third-inning single extended his hitting streak to a season-high 10 games. During the streak, Scelfo is batting .410 (16-for-39) for the Tide, which includes a nine-game SEC hitting streak. Overall, Scelfo has hit safely in 17 of his last 19 games, dating back to March 10.
*Scelfo's 10-game hitting streak is one shy of Allen Rice's season-high 11-game hitting streak for Alabama. The junior second baseman opened the year by hitting safely in his first 11 games.
*Freshman shortstop Greg Paiml grounded out in his lone at-bat to snap his hitting streak at eight games.
