All-American right hander Casey Mize was not at his best, but neither was the Auburn offense, which proved to be the bigger story.
Texas A&M starting pitcher John Doxakis held Auburn to one run on two hits in 7.1 innings to the Aggies to a 4-2 win Thursday night in the third round of the SEC Tournament at the Hoover Met.
The Tiger bats were helpless all night.
Doxakis (7-5) threw seven innings of no-hit baseball, striking out a career-high 10 on the night, before giving up an infield single to Jay Estes in the top of the eighth inning which got the Tigers into the hit column. The Aggie left-hander did not issue a walk and allowed only four hits.
Estes came around to score Auburn's first run of the game on an RBI double by Conor Davis, his second in as many days, to chase Doxakis from the game.
“I would like maybe in our second or third at-bats for that starter to maybe have to get us out a different way,” Auburn head coach Butch Thompson said. “So is that move up in the box, try to take something away from him instead of just having the same at-bats over and over.”
Mize (9-5) has been dominant for most of the year, but just wasn't good enough in a game where he had no room for error. The junior right-hander struck out seven but allowed four runs on eight hits in 7.2 innings, and had two costly wild pitches, to drop his third straight start.
“He’d throw that cutter and slider and they didn’t like it a whole lot but every time he tried to sneak a fastball in there, I thought A&M had competitive at-bats,” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. “I tip my hat to them. He’s just trying to reset and grow. At the end of the day, I like how we continued to battle and finish the ballgame competing.”
Mize, usually his own toughest critic, acknowledged that he was simply outdueled.
“Fastball command was terrible, splitter was terrible. Just not a good night for me,” Mize said. “(Auburn’s hitters) were doing the best they can so it’s not frustrating for me in that aspect. I have to be better and keep us in the game. They’re doing all they can, I understand that. I have to be better, that’s on me.”
The Auburn offense, however, hasn't exactly been helping Mize lately. The Tigers have only managed to score 12 runs in his last five starts combined, winning just one of those games.
"With Casey on the mound, we got to help him out a little bit more," Davis said. "We haven't been doing that the past couple starts for him, I think. He's going to go out there and battle his butt off every single time he throws on the mound, but we haven't been helping him out that much lately. The big thing for us is we got to get out there earlier, we got to attack earlier instead of waiting late in the game."
Auburn was threatening in the top of the ninth with runners on second and third, but the rally was eventually silenced when Luke Jarvis grounded out to shortstop to end the game and hand the Tigers their first loss of the tournament.
Estes, who was the lone bright spot for the Auburn offense other than Davis' RBI double, was responsible for two of the four hits on the night.
Aggies' closer Nolan Hoffman earned his 14th save of the season holding the Tigers to one run on two hits over the final 1.2 innings.
Auburn falls to 39-20 on the season and will have a rematch with Ole Miss in an elimination game Friday at 3 p.m. CT, while Texas A&M improves to 39-19 and will get a day of rest before playing in Saturday's semifinals.
Senior left-hander Andrew Mitchell (2-1, 3.62) will take the mound for No. 7 seed Auburn, and James McArthur (5-0, 4.47), looking to remain undefeated, will get the start for No. 2 seed Ole Miss. The game will be televised on the SEC Network.
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
