In game two of the series against Missouri, Auburn's offense could not seem to find a rhythm as they had 13 fly ball outs on their way to a 4-2 loss Friday night.
"You've got to get the ball on the ground in college baseball and we're not doing a good job of that," head coach Sunny Golloway said. "Our approach at the plate was not very good. We've been defensive offensively all weekend and we're going to face their best pitcher tomorrow."
After Missouri's leadoff hitter hit a double to start the game, Keegan Thompson threw three consecutive strikeouts.
Missouri's starting pitcher John Miles allowed a leadoff single to Jordan Ebert but he also rallied to get three straight outs to end the first inning.
Thompson added two more strikeouts in the second and Missouri's Miles threw a 1-2-3 second inning to keep it scoreless.
Missouri got on the scoreboard first in the top of third when Kendall Keeton hit an RBI single to score Jake Ring. Missouri then loaded the bases with one out but Thompson rallied by throwing a strikeout and forcing a pop fly.
In the top of the fourth Thompson threw a 1-2-3 inning, featuring three more strikeouts. But in the bottom of the fourth Auburn still went without a hit since their first at-bat of the game.
Missouri's Eric Anderson hit his second leadoff double to start off the fifth inning and Josh Lester brought Anderson home with a suicide squeeze bunt for Mizzou's second run of the game.
With two outs, Ebert hit another single for Auburn's second total hit of the game but the fifth ended quickly after with a strikeout.
After starting the top of the sixth throwing two walks, Thompson managed to get two outs before he intentionally walked Anderson. With the bases-loaded Thompson forced a groundout to get out of the jam.
Damek Tomscha led off the bottom of sixth with a standup double over the right fielder's head. Blake Austin then hit a one-out RBI single to score Tomscha for Auburn's first run. Missouri made a pitching change and got the second out before Austin was caught stealing for the third out.
Justin Camp came on in the seventh to relieve Thompson and pitched a 1-2-3 six-pitch inning.
After two walks Breckin Williams took over the pitching duties for Missouri with one out in the bottom of the seventh. Ebert delivered once again with an RBI single to tie the score at 2-2. Auburn popped it up twice to end the seventh inning with two runners stranded on base.
Camp allowed three singles to load the bases with one out in the eighth. Anderson then hit his third double of the game to make it 4-2 Missouri going into the bottom of the eighth.
Camp picked up the loss on the mound for Auburn going to 1-4 on the season.
"Their bullpen shut us down and our bullpen gave up two runs," Golloway said.
Ryan Tella led off the eighth with a four-pitch walk. Later in the inning Blake Logan hit a two-out single but Tella was caught stealing third to end the eighth inning.
"We tried to double steal there late because the report on Missouri is they don't hold you with two outs," Golloway said. "For whatever reason we're just hesitating and we shouldn't have been thrown out today or yesterday in a key situation in the seventh."
The score remained 4-2 going into Auburn's last at-bats.
Keaton Steele got his seventh save of the season as he closed it out for Missouri with a 1-2-3 ninth inning to clinch the series win.
Auburn will look to grab game three tomorrow at Plainsman Park at noon.
"I don't recognize the team I'm coaching these last two days," Golloway said. "You've got to be mentally tough in this game. We've got to get mentally tough, that's the bottom-line. We've got to be able to bounce back."
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