Greinke good for AU
Junior overcomes shoulder woes to silence Miss. State
AUBURN - Junior Luke Greinke was there when his team needed him most.
Greinke, plagued by tendonitis in his throwing shoulder, got his second Southeastern Conference start of the season and first since March 23 on Sunday. He gave up one run on six hits in six innings as Auburn hammered Mississippi State 12-2 at Plainsman Park to stay in hot pursuit of a berth in the SEC tournament.
The Tigers (26-23, 10-14) won the series two games to one over the last-place Bulldogs (19-28, 7-11) and are one game behind Kentucky and Tennessee, who are tied for eighth in the overall league standings. The top eight teams advance to Hoover for the SEC tournament.
Greinke got the start Sunday in place of freshman Cory Luckie, out with a sore forearm. And Auburn coach Tom Slater was happy with what he saw.
"When Luke Greinke is healthy, that's the kind of performance we can get out of him," Slater said. "He was down in the zone with the fastball. His sinker was good. He got a lot of groundballs. All his pitches were working. He was dynamite."
Greinke said Sunday's performance was a long time coming.
"I felt good," Greinke said. "I spent these last couple of weeks getting in shape. I think it's back and I hope to help out the team."
After Evan Crawford loaded the bases in the seventh inning by walking and giving up a base hit, closer Bryan Woodall induced a groundball and got two straight strikeouts. He finished the game, giving up one hit in three innings for his 11th save.
Mike Bianucci homered for the third consecutive game in the second inning to lead the team with 11. He became the first Auburn player since Bobby Huddleston in 2002 to homer in every game of an SEC series. Brian Fletcher had a three-run homer, his seventh, in the eighth inning and a run-scoring double in the seventh. David Cunningham had three hits and drove home two runs. Trent Mummey had three hits and scored four runs.
Auburn got to four Mississippi State pitchers for 16 hits.
Auburn goes to Ole Miss next weekend before closing the season at home against LSU.
Phillip Marshall
