MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Auburn's pitching staff turned in arguably its best performance of the season to lead the No. 17 Tigers to a 2-1 win against South Alabama Tuesday night at Riverwalk Stadium.
Four pitchers in Christian Herberholz, Alex Petrovic, Parker Carlson and Dylan Watts combined to hold South Alabama to one run on five hits with one walk and 13 strikeouts. The one run matched a season low and the 13 strikeouts were one shy of a season high.
"Tickled to death to get back in the win column, but absolutely excited for every pitcher who walked out there who did something very, very positive," head coach Butch Thompson said. "I just thought the composure was good. Everybody was landing more than one pitch. Once the win was secured, I really thought it was important and neat to look back and see our pitching staff helped us win a 2-1 ballgame."
Carlson (1-0) retired all six batters he faced with four strikeouts in the seventh and eighth innings to earn his third career win. Carlson's four strikeouts matched a career high, and the junior righty has now turned in six straight scoreless outings this season.
Watts followed Carlson in the ninth and earned his first career save. South Alabama put the tying run on second with a two-out double but a flyout to right field ended the game.
"Great team win," Carlson said. "The offense wasn't firing on all cylinders, but the whole pitching staff did a phenomenal job. That's a good team over there and we just tried to fill up the zone the best we could and give our guys a chance to win."
After South Alabama (12-9) faced just four batters over the minimum in the first six innings, Auburn (14-6) sent 14 batters to the plate in the seventh and eighth innings and scored its two runs on a pair of bases-loaded walks from Cooper Weiss and Ike Irish.
"Those were huge at-bats," Thompson said. "These guys are resilient. They knew the score and knew the situation and competed. (South Alabama) got to the point of the game they wanted with the lead and they dropped in two guys who hadn't been hit. Our guys did a really good job with the strike zone to get the two on the board."
Herberholz made the start for the Tigers and struck out four in 3.0 scoreless innings, while South Alabama starter Leif Moore retired the first seven batters he faced on just 23 pitches and faced one over the minimum in 3.0 scoreless.
South Alabama struck as soon as Auburn went to the bullpen with a solo homer to start the fourth, but Petrovic responded by retiring the next eight batters he faced with four strikeouts. After allowing the home run on the eighth pitch of the at-bat, the freshman recorded the next eight outs in 24 pitches, 19 of which were strikes.
"The guys respect him so much coming back from injury. He's been late to get to the party with us," Thompson added. "We don't think he's just a guy. We think he has a chance to be a really special guy as a true freshman. After that first hitter bit him, I thought he really did settle in and give us a couple good innings."
Carlson followed Petrovic by striking out the side in the seventh, and the Auburn offense got its pitching staff some runs in the home half of the frame.
Trailing 1-0, the Tigers loaded the bases with one out on a pair of walks and an error, and South Alabama went to its closer in Grant Wood out of the bullpen. Wood recorded a strikeout, but Auburn tied the game as Weiss battled to a full count and drew the third walk of the inning. Irish followed with a 10-pitch at-bat, fouling off four two-strike pitches before winning it with another bases-loaded walk to bring in the go-ahead run. Irish has now driven in a run in 17 of 20 games this season.
The win was Auburn's third this season when trailing entering the seventh inning. It also marked the sixth straight win against South Alabama, including the third straight by one run.
Auburn continues Southeastern Conference play with a three-game series vs. No. 1 Arkansas (17-2, 3-0 SEC) Thursday through Saturday at Plainsman Park.
Pitching quartet leads No. 17 Auburn over South Alabama
