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The Auburn University at Montgomery baseball team survived a high-scoring affair against Southern Wesleyan Warriors in their home opener 11-9 Friday afternoon.
“To show toughness, to show fight, to show grit, that’s something this team has shown since the fall, so I know that’s there but it’s good for us confidence wise to come out with a W tonight,” said AUM coach Franklin Bush after the game.
After a tough 1-3 start to the season, the AUM baseball team would look to right the ship in their home opener at QV Lowe Field.
The game started off rough for AUM as SWU’s left fielder Nolan Evatt hit a solo homerun to right center to get the Warriors on the board in the top of the first inning.
The Warhawks would respond almost instantly in the bottom of the inning after third baseman Kurt Kizer and center fielder Christopher McNeillled off the game with back-to-back doubles.
Catcher Cannon Miller would an RBI (clarify upon first reference) single to tie the game followed by shortstop Tucker Burns ripping an RBI double down the left field line to bring in go ahead run. AUM wouldn’t let up as first baseman Kyle Hipp hit a two RBI double into the right center field gap.
A sacrifice fly added one more to make it a five run first inning for AUM.
Things were a bit quiet until the top of the 3rd inning where the top of SWU’s order got on base with two outs, but Warriors first baseman Cole Kirschner left the stranded to keep AUM’s lead at four.
SWU would chip away at that lead when catcher Ryan Postnieks hit the second Warriors home run, this time a two run shot to left field to make it 5-3 Warhawks in the top of the 4th inning.
Though as quick as SWU got back in, their defense would fail them as they would commit an error and drop a ball in the outfield to allow the first two Warhawks to reach base as then a passed ball would allow AUM second baseman Brice Ainsworth to score.
After a walk, Kyle Hipp would truly make the Warriors pay for their mistakes as he would crush a three-run homerun to left field, his fourth of the season. That would give AUM a seven-run lead after four innings after their second 5 run inning of the game. Hipp would finish with six RBI on the day.
This would force SWU’s starting pitcher Gavin Chandler out of the game after 4 innings allowing 11 hits and 10 runs with only one strike out.
Nolan Evatt would continue to have a good game for the Warriors after he hit a deep double off of the right center field wall to put two runners in scoring position with no outs. A field’s choice and a single would give Southern Wesleyan two more runs to make it 10-5.
Warhawks starter Jackson Reed went five innings, giving up five runs on six hits with two homeruns allowed.
AUM had a chance to truly put Southern Wesleyan in the bottom of the sixth when they loaded the bases with no outs but only managed to score one run on a botched double play that resulted in SWU’s third error of the game and allowed the Warhawks 11th run to cross the plate.
Though, as the story of the game was, Southern Wesleyan didn’t go away easily. A hit by pitch and then steal of second base by SWU’s second baseman Kade Bowling set up Evatt’s third hit of the game to make it 11-7 AUM.
That’s when things got hairy. SWU loaded the bases after two walks and then a third walk in a row brought in a run. A single would bring the score to 11-9 but the Warhawks managed to stop the bleeding at four runs after a strike out and a fly out to the shortstop.
SWU gave AUM one final scare in the ninth inning when the tying runs made it to scoring position with two outs but a lazy pop fly to right field put any comeback attempts to bed and helped the Warhawks survive and win 11-9 to start 1-0 at home this year.
SWU leaving eight men on base vs AUM’s four proved to be the key difference in the game as the Warhawks had more clutch hits throughout the game.
While he was proud of the fight to overcome a rough pitching performance, Warhawks coach Franklin Bush said that the team needs to execute better on the mound.
“For us we have to understand the weight each pitch carries.”
