Hughey Carries Tigers Past Tide, 8-1, in Final Home Start of Career
Hughey Carries Tigers Past Tide, 8-1, in Final Home Start of Career May 20, 2005
Arnold Hughey “Arnold Hughey was outstanding. He really commanded the strike zone and had all of his pitches working tonight,” AU Coach Tom Slater said. “It was a great ballgame tonight for us all the way around.” Starting his final home game, Hughey (7-4) allowed a single to Emeel Salem and a walk to Evan Bush in the first inning before sitting down the next 15 hitters in a row, three via strikeouts, en route to his seventh win of the season, a career-high. Josh Bell (3-for-5, R, 3 RBI) and Karl Amonite (3-for-4, RBI) paced the Tigers offensively, driving in four of the Tigers’ eight runs. John Madden earned his seventh save of the season as the senior allowed just one hit in 3 1/3 innings, striking out one after entering with a runner on in the top of the sixth. After allowing an unearned run in the first, Auburn knotted the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the fourth as Jeff Boutwell tripled and came home on Josh Donaldson’s RBI groundout to second. Auburn tacked on three more in the bottom of the fifth as Adam Stacey singled and came home two batters later on Clete Thomas’ (1-for-4, 2 R, RBI) triple to left-center. Bell and Amonite each followed with RBI doubles to almost the exact same spot in left-center off of Alabama starter Wade LeBlanc (4-4). Auburn padded its lead with four runs in the bottom of the eight as Ben Sprague (1-for-4, R), Bruce Edwards (2-for-3, R), Tyler Johnstone (R, RBI) and Thomas each found their way home. Alabama scored in the first as Salem moved to second on a fielding error by leftfielder Sprague after his single, moved to third on a Rocky Scelfo sacrifice bunt and scored on Gabe Scott’s RBI groundout. The 15 consecutive batters retired marked the second time this season that an Auburn pitcher has accomplished the feat as Josh Sullivan did it to 17 VMI batters on March 12. Auburn sits in a three-way tie with Arkansas and Vanderbilt for the seventh-seed in next week’s SEC Tournament, a half-game behind sixth-place South Carolina and two games behind fifth-place Alabama. The Tigers and Tide will play the second game of the series on Saturday at 4 p.m. Tickets still remain and can be purchased at the Plainsman Park box office beginning two hours prior to the game. Auburn 8, ALABAMA 1 (May 20, 2005 at Auburn, Ala.)
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