Tigers Fall to Tide, 11-9, in Regular Season Finale
Tigers Fall to Tide, 11-9, in Regular Season Finale May 22, 2005 Auburn -- Alabama’s five-run seventh was enough to out-last Auburn as the Crimson Tide held on for an 11-9 victory on Sunday at Plainsman Park. With the loss, Auburn falls to 32-24, 13-17 SEC while Alabama moves to 37-19, 17-13 SEC. “Our guys came out and competed today, and really, all weekend long,” AU Coach Tom Slater said. “It was another hard-fought game today. There is no lay-down in this team. They haven’t done that all year, they have battled all year and I am really proud of this team.” Auburn crushed four home runs in the game, including two in the first inning. Josh Bell connected for a three-run home run in the first and Karl Amonite knocked one out in the next at-bat, putting the Tigers up 4-1 after one. Clete Thomas connected for his eight homer of the season in the third, a shot off of the scoreboard in left-center, that put the Tigers ahead 5-2 after three. Alabama rallied for two in the fourth and two in the sixth before putting five on the board in the seventh, with all five sixth-inning runs coming with two outs and John Madden on the mound for the Tigers. Auburn refused to lie down, scoring a run in the bottom of the seventh as Amonite drove in Thomas with an RBI double and another three runs in the bottom of the ninth as Amonite blasted his 10th four-bagger of the year over the wall in left-center to score Ben Sprague from first after Thomas had driven in Tyler Johnstone two batters earlier. Jared Shore pitched well for the Tigers in the starting role, allowing four runs on six hits with two walks and two strikeouts in five innings. “Jared did everything we wanted him to do. He got through five innings before tiring, but he did a tremendous job for us,” Slater said. Amonite finished the day 3-for-3 with a double, two home runs, two runs scored and four RBI while Josh Bell was 1-for-4 with a run and 3 RBI. Thomas finished 2-for-3 with three runs and two RBI while Johnstone was 2-for-5 with a triple and two runs. Alabama’s T.J. Large (7-4) earned the win after going five complete innings and allowing five runs on four hits with three walks and five strikeouts. Madden (6-2) was saddled with the loss after allowing seven runs on eight hits with a walk in 1 2/3 innings. The loss put Auburn into a three-way tie with Vanderbilt and Arkansas for eighth in the SEC but due to the tie-breaking procedure, the Tigers did not qualify for next week’s SEC Tournament. The Tigers will now await the NCAA Tournament selection. “This is a great group of kids and they deserve to be in a regional. We have an RPI that is in the top 20, we have played the best schedule in the country with 32 games against top-25 teams. This is league is tough. We will wait to find out and hopefully other people will agree with me,” Slater said. ALABAMA 11, Auburn 9 (May 22, 2005 at Auburn, Ala.)
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