Freshmen on fire as Auburn advances

RALEIGH, N.C. | Auburn’s freshmen delivered on day one of the Raleigh Regional.

Edouard Julien and Steven Williams both hit three-run home runs, and Tanner Burns earned the win with 6.0 innings of work to lead the second-seeded Tigers to a 13-4 win over No. 3 seed Northeastern Friday afternoon at Doak Field.

“It’s special,” Burns said. “We’re young and we’re having success right now, but we’ve also had some failure. I guess us three getting it going sets it up for the rest of the week. It’s fun and we’re all enjoying it.”

Auburn advances to play the winner of tonight’s game between No. 1 seed N.C. State and No. 4 seed Army on Saturday night at 6 p.m. CT on ESPN3.

The Tigers, which improve to 40-21, have won 40 games for the first time since 2010. It’s also the 100th career win for third-year head coach Butch Thompson.

Julien got the scoring started with two outs in the first inning on an opposite-field knock over the left field wall. Williams’ towering drive over the right field wall gave Auburn a 7-2 lead in the fourth.

“I thought our freshman really showed up especially on offense," Thompson said. "For (Williams) to have the day he had at the plate today, I’m proud of him and Gabe (Gross) and all of our players to continue to work in our down time since this SEC Tournament.

"I just thought the first inning was huge. They had bases loaded and we got out of the inning with I think, popup and ground ball and then Ed hitting the home run in the first inning to go up 3-0 was huge in the ballgame.”

Julien finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored and three RBI while Williams, who broke out of a 1-for-21 slump, was 4-for-4 with four runs scored and four RBI.

“It means a lot for them to stick with me right there,” Williams said. “Lately, I’ve really been struggling, just pulling off a lot of balls. I looked at some at-bats from earlier in the year, and I really just worked the left side primarily. Me and Gabe, the past few days, have been in the cage working on getting back to the left side and focusing on the left side of the field. That’s what I came here to do. BP, I was working on that. It helped me out in the game today pretty good.”

Burns, the first Auburn freshman to start a Regional opener since Hayden Gliemmo against Rutgers in 1998, held the Huskies to three runs, two earned, on seven hits to improve to 7-4 on the season. He struck out two and walked one on 96 pitches.

“That wasn’t my best outing, but I had to keep fighting each inning, each pitch,” Burns said. “The offense gave me a lot of confidence to go back each inning and keep getting us back in the dugout. I give all of the credit to the offense today. They kept me motivated and they had me a lot of confidence coming back each inning.”

Welby Malczewski allowed just one run on two hits over the final 3.0 innings to earn his first save of the season.

Auburn totaled 17 hits with Brett Wright going 3-for-5 with one run scored, Will Holland 2-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBI, and Josh Anthony 2-for-4 with two runs scored. Jay Estes was 1-for-3 with an RBI.

Northeastern, which falls to 36-20, will play the loser of tonight’s game Saturday at 1 p.m. CT.