No. 6 Auburn lost the opening game of its baseball series against No. 7 Florida, 6-3, on April 16 at Condron Family Ballpark in Gainesville.
The game saw Auburn fall behind early and struggle to recover despite a strong relief pitching performance. The loss is significant for Auburn as it continues its season against another top-ranked team.
Auburn took an early lead with a two-out single from Logan Gregorio in the first inning, but Florida quickly responded with a run in the bottom half and pulled ahead with a three-run home run by Blake Cyr in the third inning. Auburn’s starting pitcher Andreas Alvares was replaced after just over two innings as Florida built a lead that proved difficult to overcome.
Head coach Butch Thompson said, “I just didn’t think we got off to a great start. They just got the leadoff man on all night in some way, shape, form or fashion. I thought we did a nice job of keeping them to two runs after they hit the three-run homer.”
Thompson also commented on his team’s efforts later in the game: “If we could’ve just answered a little bit we could’ve done some different things, but again I thought the bullpen guys did a nice job. Every big moment when we got a little something going, we could not have an at-bat. I give King a lot of credit. At the end of the day, he took his fastball, his best pitch, and threw it through us.”
Reliever Abe Chancellor pitched three scoreless innings for Auburn and helped keep his team within reach during the middle innings. Despite scoring twice in the seventh inning to narrow Florida’s lead to three runs, Auburn was unable to mount further offense as Florida’s closer Joshua Whritenour finished out the game.
Game two between Auburn and Florida is scheduled for Friday afternoon.
