AUBURN, Ala. – No. 8 Auburn jumped out to an early lead and received a strong performance on the mound to ultimately earn a 5-3 win against Illinois-Chicago on Opening Day at Plainsman Park.
Preseason All-Americans Tanner Burns and Cody Greenhill combined to go the distance as Auburn claimed its 10th straight season-opening win. The junior duo allowed four hits and struck out 13 batters while issuing just two walks.
"It's big time," sophomore infielder Ryan Bliss said of Burns and Greenhill. "As an offense, it just shows us that we need to score and let our guys do their thing. Having the confidence (knowing) that Cody is coming out of the 'pen right after Tanner is big time. It just gives us a bunch of confidence, and we can just play our game freely because we know we've got guys like Cody that can just shove the ball in the strike zone and get outs."
Bliss and Steven Williams led the way from the plate with two hits and one RBI apiece. Conor Davis reached base three times and drove in a run, while Tyler Miller went 1-for-3 with a RBI triple in his Auburn debut.
"I've been excited the last two weeks with our swings," head coach Butch Thompson said. "I think we're hitting the ball harder than we have as a group, maybe since I've been here. I hope that trend continues. I can't go off one night. I'm going more off of what I've seen these last two or three weeks. We've played 12 intrasquad games, and I wanted it to translate. I felt good about our at-bats. Just the two-strike is what I was thankful for tonight. Even though we got off some good swings tonight, I think there's more in there."
The Tigers (1-0) wasted no time in getting on the scoreboard as Judd Ward hit a leadoff double and scored on William's RBI single to center two batters later. In his first at-bat in an Auburn uniform, Miller hit a RBI triple off the wall in right-center to cap off a two-run first.
After UIC (0-1) evened the scored on a two-run home run in the third, Auburn got both runs back in the home half. Bliss started the frame with a leadoff double and came in to score on a sacrifice fly from Davis. Miller reached for the second time in as many plate appearances, and the Tigers extended the lead back to two as Matt Scheffler legged out infield single to score Miller.
The Flames cut the deficit to one as a run scored on a wild pitch in the fourth, but the Tigers answered for the second consecutive inning on Bliss' RBI double, his second of the game.
From there, Burns and Greenhill retired 15 of the last 16 batters, including seven on strikeouts, to preserve the win. Burns (1-0) earned the win opposite UIC right-hander Jacob Key (0-1). The save was Greenhill's 18th of his career, while his six strikeouts marked a new career high.
"I think Greenhill was four innings with no hits," Thompson added. "I thought he was pretty sharp. Seeing the development of that breaking ball, which has to be respected now. (He) threw a few of those tonight."
The Opening Day crowd of 3,753 was the third largest recorded attendance on a season opener in program history.
"It means a lot," Bliss said of the support. "We've been wanting the support, and the fans showed up tonight. We were talking about that in the dugout. That was big time to see the fans come out. Hopefully, the support continues."
The two teams will turn around to play a doubleheader Saturday starting at 1 p.m. CT. Saturday's ticket is valid for both games of the doubleheader.