In what will be his last series against Auburn as a member of the Alabama Crimson Tide, senior center fielder Taylor Dugas would not be denied.
Dugas torched the Auburn pitching to notch his 300th career hit, tie the school record for career doubles at 64 and then break the school record for triples with 14 as the Tide beat No. 23 Auburn 10-6 Friday.
“Not only does he break the triples record, but it was the biggest blow of the night,” head coach Mitch Gaspard said. “That kind of put the nail in the coffin there in the end.”
The record-breaking, essentially game-clinching triple took place with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the eighth, a three-RBI knock down the right field line.
“That was exciting,” Dugas said. “It was good timing for that hit.”
Dugas’s record-setting evening was part of a bigger offensive explosion, which featured the Tide scoring double-digit runs for the first time since Feb. 24th.
“Offensively, we were good for nine innings,” Gaspard said. “We got the big blow by [second baseman] Kenny [Roberts], and he’s big for our team. We’ve really been waiting on Kenny to deliver and hopefully that’s the one that gets him going.”
The big blow Gaspard mentioned was a two-out grand slam in the bottom of the third that gave Alabama a 7-2 lead.
The big hit was perfectly timed for Roberts, who had been taken out of the lineup for several weeks in an effort to work through some offensive struggles.
“It’s been very difficult,” Roberts said. “I’ve put in the work and the results didn’t show. It’s finally starting to click for me. I’m going to continue to work and provide the team with great at-bats.”
Dugas added, “I’ve been joking with him a lot about swinging the bat. He’s coming around, he’s going to be fine.”
Seeing Roberts come through was gratifying for Gaspard.
“It has been a struggle for Kenny,” Gaspard said. “He had a tremendous junior college career and a really good fall for us. The expectations were high coming in, and he’s struggled. Sometimes it’s getting a hit like that that gets guys going. For our team to be what we want to be, Kenny has to hit. He needed that and our team needed that because our team knows Kenny is going to be a big part of us winning games.”
The Tide came into this game after breaking a five-game losing streak with a Tuesday win over South Alabama, and the mental breakthrough was noticeable Friday.
“We had some momentum coming from Tuesday night, we had a good feel from that game over there,” Dugas said.
The intensity of the rivalry with certainly helped.
“You can’t help but be a little energized with Auburn sitting right there,” Dugas said.
