A summer storm swaying away from Falcon Park at the last minute was just one of the many bright spots on the day for the Doubledays. Coming off a 2-3 roadtrip where all five games were determined by one run, the Doubledays (20-18) were able to finally separate themselves against their competition with an explosive 11-5 win over the Connecticut Tigers (19-19).
Aaron Fletcher – Auburn’s ERA leader with at least four starts – had by far the most dominant outing of his professional career to this point. Following his last start on July 27 where he allowed only one hit across three innings, Fletcher recorded a career-high five strikeouts over 2.2 innings. To make his outing even more impressive, he did all of these feats while allowing just one hit.
Fletcher and his replacement on the mound, Angel Guillen, kept the Tigers off the board through the fourth inning, where the Doubledays pushed across the first runs of the game. Though Auburn failed to actually record a hit in the inning, the Doubledays made Connecticut pay for an early hit-by-pitch and back-to-back walks.
Pablo O’Connor worked the third walk of the inning to bring in the Doubledays’ first run of the night, and Ricardo Mendez lifted a flyball deep enough to bring in the second on a sacrifice fly.
The Doubledays put up another crooked number on the scoreboard in the sixth after the Tigers momentarily tied the game back up in the top of the inning. Loading the bases after two walks and a single, Nic Perkins hit a single up the middle to regain the team’s two-run lead.
A Cole Daily walk and Cody Wilson single drove in another two runs while a two-run single by Carson Shaddy rounded off the Doubledays’ huge inning with six runs scored.
Down 8-2, the Tigers made it interesting in the seventh when they knocked Guillen out of the game after charging him for three runs. Isrrael De La Cruz came up big for Connecticut with runners at the corners with an RBI single, and, after moving both runners up with a balk, a line drive single by Eric De La Rosa brought the Tigers to within three runs at the stretch.
But while Connecticut temporarily put a bend on the Doubledays’ dominance, the Auburn offense refused to break. The Doubledays answered right back by loading the bases for the second time in as many innings and having Nic Perkins deliver a RBI single once more. Sanchez added on with an RBI groundout, and Cody Wilson drove in third run of the inning on a single.
🎧 HIGHLIGHTS 🎧
✅ Season-high for runs in an inning
✅ Double-digits for first time in almost a month
✅ Four multi-hit games (🏐, 🐗, 💪, 🥒)
✅ Two more solid outings from Fletch and Morse
✅ Whttps://t.co/xLUpwn64RW— Auburn Doubledays (@Doubledays) July 28, 2018
The Doubledays will be back in action Saturday at 6:30 for Game 2 of their series against the Tigers. Listen LIVE on FL1 Radio.
By Chris Valentino Tril
