Tigers improve to 10-0
AUBURN | The fast start continued for No. 25 Auburn Friday night.
Edouard Julien drove home four runs and Calvin Coker threw 3.2 scoreless innings out of the bullpen to lead the Tigers to a 4-3 win over BYU at Plainsman Park.
Auburn improves to 10-0, its best start since beginning the season 13-0 in 2001.
“Good win for us. A good, sound, technical team in BYU. Just a lot of respect,” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. “Edouard Julien was a huge story … He had a couple of really good swings, good passes at the ball.
“Coker gave us 3 and 2/3, really settled down, really started affecting swings and took us all the way to the house. Coming in, in the sixth inning and finishing a ball game, you just have to tip your hat.”
Julien drove a one-out, two-strike pitch over the right field wall for a three-run home run in the second inning. It was the freshman’s first career home run. He added a sacrifice fly in fourth inning to stake Auburn to an early 4-0 lead.
“There were two guys in scoring position and I was just trying to put the barrel on the ball and drive someone in,” Julien said. “He had two strikes on me and I was just trying to go oppo and drive someone in, but my barrel sped up on that slider and I was able to catch it.”
Auburn starter Casey Mize cruised through the first five innings, not allowing a hit and striking out eight before getting into trouble in the sixth. After the leadoff hitter reached on an error, Mize allowed a double and RBI single before being relieved by Elliott Anderson.
Nate Favero, the first batter to face Anderson, lined a double to left-center to drive home two and cut Auburn’s lead to 4-3.
Coker put out the fire in the sixth and retired eight-straight batters until an error in the ninth. He earned his second save of the season holding BYU without a hit and striking out three.
“It was huge. It was obviously big,” Coker said. “I think saving (Cody) Greenhill is arguably one of the best things we did right there. They had told me they were discussing whether to run me back out or not. I was thinking in the dugout, ’If we throw Cody in the ninth who knows if we have him for tomorrow.’ I think it was a pretty big deal that I was able to go back out there and get those three outs.”
Mize (3-0) earned the win allowing three runs, two earned, on three hits in 5.1 innings with nine strikeouts, one walk and one hit batter. He threw 92 pitches.
“We saw Casey Mize return to form in a lot of ways. So good to see,” Thompson said. “You’re always trying to grow and get better so I wound up telling him those last 10 pitches, I thought he got a little tired. But he did get to a good pitch count tonight.”
Brendan Venter and Josh Anthony had two hits apiece for the Tigers.
Auburn and BYU will conclude the series with a doubleheader Saturday beginning at noon CT. Game two will follow 45 minutes after the first game. The games will not be available on T.V. or streaming.