AUBURN — Pitching’s important this time of year, and while Auburn baseball has several quality arms, it didn’t back off its usual approach for NCAA regional play, leading with left-hander Jake Marciano in its matchup with 4-seed Milwaukee.
Entering the day, Marciano led Auburn in ERA, WHIP and walks allowed across 81⅔ innings. The Tigers’ Friday night starter has looked human in a handful of outings this spring, but the Panthers made him look pedestrian as ever.
Milwaukee — six games below .500 — delivered a considerable upset, beating Auburn 13-8 on Friday, May 29, and putting the NCAA Tournament’s fourth overall seed in an elimination circumstance.
The Panthers pulled it off, in part, by chasing Marciano after one inning official. He surrendered six runs on eight hits, facing just 10 hitters and throwing 29 pitches.
Clearly Marciano was on Milwaukee’s mind. He was head coach Shaun Wegner’s second mention in a postgame opening statement.
“We came out on the attack,” Wegner said. “Jake Marciano is a really good pitcher in the SEC, and we just figured we had to jump him early and try to get some swings off.”
It played out as Wegner explained. After Marciano struck out the first batter he faced, Milwaukee hit three-straight singles and plated a run. Then first baseman John Hadley left the yard with two on. Marciano was 11 pitches in, and he’d already surrendered four runs. He’d face just three more hitters in the second, and they registered two doubles, a single and plated another run.
Milwaukee right fielder Charlie Marion described the scout simply. Battle with two strikes, but look for pitches up and don’t chase the low ones.
The Panthers success against the Tigers continued what’s been quite the in-season turnaround. After starting the year 5-23, they went 20-8 to close, winning seven consecutive heading into the NCAA Tournament. To maintain such results against SEC competition, Milwaukee had to lock in on Marciano. But there was something to be said about momentum, which Wegner wondered about from the very start.
“I kind of saw from the first pitch, when he threw a ball,” Wegner said of Marciano. “I’m like, ‘Maybe he’s a little off today. I don’t know.’ You just get those thoughts rolling in your head, and hitting is so contagious. When you get the energy rolling and the belief throughout that dugout, you never know what you can do, and these guys — I mean, you saw what happened.”
Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at acole@gannett.com or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @colereporter.To support Adam’s work, please subscribe to the Montgomery Advertiser.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: How Milwaukee attacked Jake Marciano, delivered upset of Auburn baseball