AUBURN, Ala. - The VMI baseball team wasted no time in making major headlines in the 2006 season, taking their season-opening series at Auburn with a 10-8 victory on Sunday afternoon at Plainsman Park. The win comes one day after the Keydets scored their first ever decision over the Tigers, and gives the team their best start since the 2000 season.

"I'm really proud of how our guys played all weekend," said VMI head coach Marlin Ikenberry. "The best part of the weekend was seeing how hard and fearless we played. We played with conviction, and had a lot of fun doing it. It really just shows where our program has come in few years, they're going to be a good team in the SEC, but we found a way to do the things we needed to do to pull out the win."

Sophomore Klint Reed again paced the Keydets' (2-1) offensive attack, going 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles, while no less than six Keydet pitchers saw action on the mound. Earning the win in his first collegiate appearance was junior Ian Casher (1-0), who pitched 3.1 innings, allowing only one run on four hits after coming on in the fifth inning.

For the second straight day, the Keydets took a first inning lead, but unlike the previous game, VMI never trailed the rest of the day, though the Tigers (1-2) threatened often. In the first, five VMI hits, aided by a pair of errors, helped the Keydets to a 4-0 lead, as Reed, Jacoby Fields and Michael Roberts provided doubles and Robert Crumpler and Chad Rice notched singles in the rally.

The visitors then tacked on an unearned run in the second, as B.T. Good drew a leadoff walk, moved to second on a failed pickoff attempt, went to third on a single by Shane Geisslinger, then scored on Reed's sacrifice fly to advance the Keydets' lead to 5-0.

Freshman Chris Henderson, making his first collegiate start, pitched four strong innings, shutting out the Tigers while surrendering only four hits while striking out three.

"Henderson gave us a great outing today," said Ikenberry. "He was on a 75-pitch count like the rest of our guys, and he pitched really well in the first three innings, but just didn't have much velocity left in the fourth. But he battled through, only giving up the double and got us to the fifth."

The fifth inning would see a lot of fireworks both ways, as a total of eight runs were plated in the frame. The Keydets started things off, plating a pair of runs, started out by a leadoff double by Reed. Sweppenhiser's single moved Reed to third before Sweppenhiser stole second, giving the Keydets a pair of runners in scoring position with no outs. A wild pitch moved each runner up a base, before a two-out single by Rice gave the Keydets' their largest lead of the weekend at 7-0

But the Tigers finally broke out of their offensive slump in their half of the fifth, as singles by the first four batters of the inning preceded a three-run home run by Andy Bennett. A pair of singles later in the fifth provided the sixth run of the inning for the Tigers, cutting heavily into the Keydet advantage at 7-6.

However, with their first-ever series win over an SEC opponent in their sights, the Keydets responded in the next two innings. Both teams added a run to their total in the sixth before doubles by Rice and Geisslinger and a single by Roberts pushed the VMI lead to 10-7 headed to the bottom of the seventh inning.

Despite scratching together five baserunners in the next two innings, the Tigers could plate no runners, as Casher kept the hosts off the scoreboard, escaping a bases-loaded, two-out jam in the bottom of the eighth.

After the Keydets went down 1-2-3 in the top of the ninth, the stage was set for a dramatic ninth-inning showdown. The Keydets sent junior Corey Bachman to the mound, however, he was unable to record an out, allowing a double and an RBI single before leaving the game in favor of Fields. Fields, who was in the game as the starting leftfielder, made only his sixth career pitching appearance, coming into a two-run game with a runner on first. After allowing a single to the first batter he faced, Fields retired the next three, closing out his first career save and securing the series victory for the Keydets.

Reed capped off a stellar weekend, going 7-for-12 with three doubles, a home run and four RBI. Other offensive stars for VMI included Chad Rice (5-for-11, four RBI), Kelly Sweppenhiser (4-for-11, HR) and Shane Geisslinger (4-for-11, two doubles).

"These juniors and seniors have gone down to Florida State and Auburn and Vanderbilt over the last couple of seasons and been in close games with national caliber teams," said Ikenberry. "It's nice to get over the hump and win a pair of games against a national caliber opponent, and get off to a great start to the season. I've been really proud of our preparation that we've done in the fall and preseason. We want to be one of the top three teams in the conference and compete at a national level, and to do that, we have to be focused every time out, like we showed we could do this weekend."

Next weekend, the Keydets will again head south, playing their final road non-conference series of the season at Mercer in Macon, Ga., a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference that will also bring a 2-1 record into the series.