Graves leads Orange to opening win

AUBURN | The Orange team jumped on Blue early and Griffin Graves made sure it held up in an 11-1 win to open Auburn’s intrasquad World Series.

Graves, who threw three shutout innings, was staked to an early lead as Orange scored four runs in the first inning on an RBI-single by Chase Fralick, a bases-loaded walk by Ethin Bingaman and a two-RBI single by Caiden Combs.

Alex Petrovic threw a scoreless fourth and fifth and Ethan Harden closed out the game giving up a leadoff solo home run to Eric Guevara in the sixth before retiring the next three batters.

“The mound was steadied by Griffin Graves today to let them get to the middle and backend,” said AU coach Butch Thompson. “Orange swung the bat. I thought Cris Rembert was great. Chase Fralick behind the plate, whenever you get to throw to him, that’s like a Friday night with an SEC starting catcher back there. He was great today.”

Orange scored seven more runs in the sixth including RBI-singles by Cade Belyeu, Bristol Carter, Brandon McCraine, Bingaman and Combs, and a sacrifice fly by Bub Terrell.

Jackson Sanders gave up the four runs in the first but came back to throw scoreless innings in the second and third. “I think the Blue team is trying to save some arms for this series and it got away from them a little bit,” said Thompson.

The first phase of the World Series, which includes player-drafted teams, will continue Friday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Auburn will play its second exhibition game at Kennesaw State Nov. 8 and conclude fall practice with a coach-drafted World Series the following week.