Auburn brought the big sticks to the ATL Tuesday night.
The Tigers pounded out three home runs including a three-run blast by Cade Belyeu in the ninth inning for a 7-2 win over Georgia Tech at Russ Chandler Stadium.
“I was just trying to look for something over the plate and be on time,” Belyeu told the Auburn Network. “The second pitch was over the plate, middle-in, and I just got a good swing off on it.”
Belyeu helped seal the win with a leaping catch at the right field wall to take away a two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth. Chris Stanfield did the same in the second with a leaping catch at the centerfield wall.
“Both of them are momentum switches,” said AU coach Butch Thompson. “They absolutely made amazing catches.”
Auburn improves to 23-24 overall and 10-1 in midweek games.
Auburn used five pitchers with Ben Schorr (1-1) picking up the win with 2.0 shutout innings out of the bullpen. He allowed one hit and two walks.
AU starter Jospeh Gonzalez allowed a run on one hit in 2.0 innings, Hayden Murphy one run on four hits in 1.0 inning and Cameron Keshock one hit in 2.0 innings with four strikeouts.
“I thought Schorr’s stuff, the breaking ball, kept them off just enough,” said Thompson. “He hadn’t pitched in a while. Keshock kinda did the same thing. They were uncomfortable at-bats.”
Christian Herberholz earned his second save of the season allowing just one hit with two strikeouts over the final 2.0 innings.
After falling behind 2-0 early, Auburn fought back with a run in the fourth and three more in the fifth.
The Tigers got on board with a sacrifice fly by Belyeu in the fourth and then opened the fifth with back-to-back home runs by Eric Guevara and Cooper Weiss.
AU added one more in the fifth on a fielding error by the pitcher to take a 4-2 lead.
Belyeu was 1 of 4 with a career-high four RBI.
Auburn returns to SEC play this weekend with a three-game series at Missouri beginning Friday night at 6 p.m. CT on SECN+/ESPN+.