Julien drives in three to lead Auburn to ninth straight win

ABC and Junior National Team alum Edouard Julien (Quebec City, Que.) drove in three runs for the Auburn Tigers in the second game of a doubleheader on Saturday. Photo: Auburn Athletics (file photo)

March 9, 2019

By George Nunnelley

Auburn Athletics

Auburn wins ninth straight, sweeps UTSA

AUBURN, Ala. – No. 18 Auburn increased its win streak to nine games in a doubleheader sweep of UTSA Saturday at Plainsman Park. The Tigers defeated the Skyhawks, 5-0, in game one and turned around to take the series finale, 8-3.

Auburn improved to 14-2 on the season with the pair of wins. The shutout in game one Saturday marked the team’s third straight, marking the first time in program history the Tigers recorded three straight shutouts.

"It's good to get back home this week and play solid for the most part," head coach Butch Thompson said. "The whole pitching staff looks like they continue to grow. Jack Owen was definitely the story today in that first game.

"Not many times in amateur baseball you look after five complete innings and a pitcher has thrown 46 pitches. At that point I thought he had a chance to get to the finish line."

Owen (3-0, 0.00) headlined game one with the first complete game shutout of his Auburn career, and Carson Skipper (3-0, 2.84) piggy-backed off his pitching mate with 4.2 scoreless innings in the nightcap.

As a pitching staff, Auburn continued to command the strike zone with 19 strikeouts and one walk in the two games.

Offensively, Kason Howell and Rankin Woley highlighted the day with three hits apiece to go along with four and three RBI, respectively.

GAME ONE

Owen made his second straight Saturday start and improved upon his outing from a week ago as the sophomore southpaw turned in the aforementioned shutout and struck out seven batters without issuing a walk.

Owen hasn’t allowed an earned run in 25 innings to start the season, tying Keegan Thompson for the second-longest streak without allowing an earned run in program history.

Matt Scheffler got the Auburn offense started and broke up the no-hit bid with a solo home run in the bottom of the fifth. The home run was the first of Scheffler’s Auburn career.

An inning later, Edouard Julien (Quebec City, Que.) led off the frame with a single and came in to score a batter later on a RBI base hit from Woley, who later scored on an infield single by Howell to extend the lead to 3-0.

The Tigers scored for the third straight frame in the bottom of the seventh. Steven Williams ripped a double down the right-field line and scored on Woley’s second RBI single of the contest, marking his team-best 17th RBI of the season.

Owen retired the final 17 batters of the game and faced two over the minimum in the contest. The Aliso Viejo, California, native struck out three of the last six batters he faced. He has now struck out 29 batters and issued two walks on the season.

GAME TWO

The Auburn offense wasted no time in getting started in game two as the Tigers scored five runs in the bottom of the first thanks to bookend two-RBI doubles from Julien and Howell. The first three batters of the game reached base and the Tigers sent eight to the plate in the frame.

Skipper earned the designated start and pitched 4.2 scoreless innings with five strikeouts and no walks.

After Auburn scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth, Brooks Fuller entered the game in the top of the sixth with a pair of runners in scoring position and nobody out and escaped the jam with only one inherited runner scoring. The run was the first Auburn allowed in a program-record 33 1/3 innings dating back to Tuesday’s contest vs. UT Martin.

Peyton Glavine made his third relief appearance of the season and tossed a perfect frame with a pair of strikeouts. It marked Glavine’s third straight scoreless outing in 2019.

UTSA scratched two runs across in the top of the eighth, but Auburn got on back when Julien drew a bases-loaded walk in the home half to cap off the scoring in the game. Julien matched Howell with a team-best three RBI in the contest.

Auburn travels to South Alabama (8-5) for a midweek contest Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Stanky Field.