Charleston Homers Hamper Auburn
By Ben Jones
Special to CollegeBaseballInsider.com
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.
– Three home runs and nine innings weren't enough for College
of Charleston to beat Auburn in the opening game of the
Tallahassee regional. It took a fourth homer in extra innings
for the Cougars.
Sophomore catcher Erven Roper launched a solo shot over the
right-field fence with two outs in the bottom of the 11th
inning to give the Cougars a 7-6 win over the Tigers in a game
that featured two ties and five lead changes.
"We've hit a bunch of home runs all year, and if you'd have
told me we'd be in extra innings after we hit three and their
left fielder made one of the best plays I've seen in college
baseball game or it could have been four, and we'd be in extra
innings and not won the ballgame in nine innings, I'd say
that's pretty hard to do," Charleston coach Monte Lee said.
Auburn's Izaac Yarbrough came on in the eighth inning and had
shut down the Cougars (44-13) for three innings. Roper was the
first College of Charleston batter Yarbrough faced when he
entered. After grounding out in his first at-bat against the
lefty, he was ready for what he saw in their next meeting. He
took a 1-0 pitch out of the park for the win. He finished 2
for 5 with three RBI.
"The
first at-bat, I kind of struggled," Roper said. "They kind of
threw me a lot of off speed. The second at-bat, I just kind of
slowed myself down, calmed myself down, and just saw the
baseball."
That
homer made good on the Cougars' earlier efforts when they
roughed up Auburn starter Cole Lipscomb. Charleston took a 1-0
lead in the bottom of the second on a solo home run from
Bradley Jones and added back-to-back solo home runs from Blake
Butler and Nick Pappas (2 for 4, 2 R, 2 RBI) in the bottom of
the fourth to make it 3-1.
The
Cougars' first three hits of the game were all solo home runs.
A
possible fourth home run from outfielder Morgan Phillips was
robbed at the wall in left by Auburn's Jackson Burgreen, who
leapt to bring the ball back over the wall.
"When you give up four home runs, seven runs with two outs,
both teams have eight hits, both teams strike out nine guys
and you lose the ball game, it's very disappointing," Auburn
coach Sunny Golloway said. "You can't defend the home run.
That did us in today."
Charleston appeared to have the game well under control with
ace Taylor Clarke, the Colonial Athletic Association pitcher
of the year, on the mound. But he started to fade in the sixth
inning, when he gave up three hits and three runs to surrender
the lead to Auburn for the first time. The Tigers' final run
of the inning came when Clarke was called for a balk with
runners on second and third.
The
Cougars responded with three runs of their own in the bottom
of the sixth to retake a 6-4 lead, but the Tigers weren't done
roughing up Clarke. A two-run home from Melvin Gray in the
seventh tied the game again at 6. He gave up eight hits and
struck out seven in seven innings pitched while throwing 125
pitches.
"The
thing that's great about this ball club is we find ways to win
ball games," Lee said. "Taylor Clarke, our ace, was not at his
best today. He gave up six runs, Auburn did a nice job of
capitalizing on some mistakes and getting some balls up. I
thought one of the keys for Auburn today was they really drove
his pitch count up over the first four or five innings."
It
was no surprise the Cougars won the game thank to the long
ball – they’ve hit 68 this year – but Roper was an unlikely
candidate to launch the game-winner. He had just three home
runs all season entering the game, ranking him seventh on his
own team.
"I
got a pitch that I could handle and I drove it," Roper said.
"… It's like floating on a cloud. It's crazy. I don't even
remember running around the bases. It's definitely something
I'll remember for the rest of my life."
College of Charleston will advance to meet Florida State on
Saturday. Auburn (35-25) will play the Mercer in an
elimination game at noon on Saturday.
