Auburn High wins Class 6A baseball championship

MONTGOMERY — Auburn High didn’t make its fans wait long Friday for the school’s first baseball championship since 1986.

The Tigers didn’t even make them sweat that much.

After gutting out a three-run win in Game 1 of its Class 6A championship series over Oxford Thursday, Auburn ran away with a 13-3 win in six innings for a series sweep at Riverwalk Stadium.

“This is a great day for Auburn,” Tigers coach Matt Cimo said. “I can’t be more proud of these kids and what they accomplished.”

Junior James Ponder ended it for Auburn (36-8), hitting a bases-clearing double with no outs in the bottom of the sixth to give the Tigers a run-rule win over the Yellow Jackets (28-14).

Ponder finished the day 4-for-4 with six RBI, earning tournament MVP honors.

Junior Drew Eiland (7-1) picked up the win, giving up three runs (one earned) on eight hits while striking out two and walking one over six innings.

Auburn’s cheering section showed up en masse behind the Tigers’ first-base dugout, complete with noisemakers, painted signs and six shirtless students with “A-U-B-U-R-N” spelled out on their chests.

The Tigers’ triumph comes a year after Opelika came within one game of winning the state title.

“Nobody can ever take this away from us,” said senior Reid Carter, who finished his high school career by going 2-for-3 with two RBI. “We’ll see each other 20 years down the road and we’ll just have to smile because of this day.”