AUBURN | No. 14 Auburn came out swinging and Cooper Weiss ran wild again.
The Tigers beat Samford 12-3 Tuesday night at Plainsman Park behind home runs by Cooper McMurray, Christian Hall and Mason Maners.
Weiss tied his school record with four stolen bases, swiping two in the first inning, one in the third and another in the fourth. Weiss also tied a school record with four walks.
“Weiss was on the attack,” said AU coach Butch Thompson. “I thought that was good energy for the team, and we got off some good swings tonight that made a difference.”
Auburn struck for three runs in the first on an RBI-triple by Bobby Peirce and a two-run home run by McMurray over the centerfield wall. AU took control of the game with five runs in the third on a throwing error by the pitcher, sacrifice fly by Deric Fabian and a three-run home runs by Hall well over the left field wall.
Ike Irish doubled home a run and McMurray hit a sacrifice fly in the fourth, Weiss scored on a wild pitch in the sixth and Maners hit a solo home run over the right field wall in the seventh.
AU starter Conner McBride (1-0) earned the win allowing a run on two hits in 5.0 innings. The junior right-hander struck out five and didn’t issue a walk on 63 pitches.
“He was in command,” said Thompson of McBride. “Just the ability to have authority over the baseball means a lot. He had more than one pitch working and he really took the sting out of the swing. The guys played well behind him, especially the left side.”
Griffin Graves allowed two runs, one earned, on one hit and two walks in 0.1 innings before Dylan Watts came in to throw 1.2 hitless innings with one strikeout and Parker Carlson threw a scoreless eighth.
Cameron Keshock closed out the Bulldogs retiring all three batters he faced in the ninth.
Weiss has 10 stolen bases in AU’s first eight games of the season. Mailon Kent holds Auburn’s single-season record with 40 in 1999.
Peirce was 3 of 4 with two runs scored and one RBI. Irish and McMurray had two hits apiece while McMurray and Hall had three RBI apiece.
Auburn hosts UConn for a three-game series this weekend.
