Auburn AAAs stay alive, beat Texas

By Tom Peavy

Published: August 5, 2008

LaGRANGE, Ga. — Things started getting eerily similar for Auburn Orange.

Just like the day before in a loss, Auburn watched a commanding lead vanish.

Only this time Auburn was able to hold on.

Auburn Orange survived for another day in the losers’ bracket of the Dixie Youth AAA (9-10) World Series, holding off Texas, 7-6. Auburn led the game, 7-0, into the fourth before Texas began its rally.

On Monday, Auburn fell to Florida, 11-10, after holding a 4-0 lead.

“It seems like it just starts to slip away at times,” Auburn manager Van Northcutt said. “But we battled back and did what we needed to get the win.”

Auburn will play again today in an elimination game against either Virginia or Mississippi at 4:30 p.m.

Tuesday’s game took on a somber tone in the fourth inning when the home plate umpire called time and walked to the Auburn dugout on the first-base side and collapsed.

Firefighters and medical personnel at the park raced to his aid in the dugout before an ambulance entered the field and took the fallen umpire to a local hospital. The game ended up being delayed for nearly an hour. Temperatures during the game hovered near the 100-degree mark.

As for the game, Auburn wasted little time jumping on Texas. After scoring two runs in the first and one in the second, Auburn plated four runs in the third to take the 7-run lead.

In the third, Austin Triplett had an RBI double, while Ryan Watson and Ben Ruffin had RBI singles.

“The bats got rattling really well,” Northcutt said. “We got aggressive at the plate and swung at some good first pitches.”

But things begun to unravel in the top of the fourth.

Texas led off the frame with a single from Alonso DeLeon and loaded the bases with a hit batter and a walk.

After the hour-long medical delay, Manuel Garcia hit an RBI single and another run scored on a passed ball. A third run scored on a passed ball and Adrian Hernandez made it a 7-4 game with an RBI single.

After a walk to load the bases, DeLeon came up for the second time in the inning and laced a hard shot into center field. But Auburn’s Tyus
Flakes scooped up the ball in center and fired to second for a force out to end the inning and prevent more damage.

But Texas wasn’t done.

After holding Auburn off the board for the first time in the bottom of the fourth, Texas took advantage of more Auburn miscues to score two runs, making it a one-run game.

After two walks and an error, one run scored on a bases-loaded error in right field and another run came home on a fielder’s choice.

Auburn again failed to add insurance runs in the fifth, and brought ace Bradley Nortchutt on to close things out.

Northcutt got two quick outs, but ran into trouble with two walks.

Garcia, who already had two hits on the day and was robbed of another on a diving catch by Flakes, came to the plate. After falling behind in the count early, Garcia fought off several pitches before smoking a shot to dead center.

However, Flakes stretched his arm high in the air to snag the liner in center field for the final out.

Northcutt led Auburn at the plate, going 3-for-3 with a double. Hayden Williams was 2-for-3 with a pair of infield hits.

Starting pitcher Ryan Watson took the win, going 3 1/3 innings with five strikeouts. He had the shutout through three before running into trouble in the fourth.

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