Auburn baseball has dropped its first series of the year. After losing 6-3 on Saturday in game two, the Tigers fell 3-1 to Texas A&M Sunday in the series finale at Blue Bell Park.
“We only scored six runs this weekend,” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. “We’ve talked all year long about Sunday being the tough day and we’ve been the toughest team. This is the first time this year a team really competed against us and maybe played harder than us today.”
Aggie starter Stephen Kolek (2-2) kept the Tigers off the board for 7.1 innings and finished with just one run allowed in eight innings. He recorded seven strikeouts with one walk and five hits allowed. Conor Davis had two doubles while Bowen McGuffin, Daniel Robert, Josh Anthony and Jonah Todd each added hits for Auburn. McGuffin broke up the shutout in the eighth with a RBI single that scored Davis for Auburn’s only run of the game.
The Tiger pitching staff held the Aggies in check for the most part, but just did not get the offensive support they needed to escape with the win. Davis Daniel (2-2) allowed three runs in 5.1 innings pitched and struck out five with two walks. Andrew Mitchell and Cole Lipscomb also chipped in and combined for 2.2 scoreless relief innings.
“Looking at the whole series, I thought the mental stuff from yesterday, is the game we let get away,” Thompson said. “Kolek threw a great game today. Davis Daniel did a good job, but when five of six lead-off batters get on, it was like we played prevent defense all day. I was kind of happy with his line score, just giving up the three runs. Andrew Mitchell was sharp for us and Cole Lipscomb had one of his better innings in short work.”
Texas A&M scored single runs in the first, fifth and sixth innings cashing in on lead-off doubles each time with RBI singles. The Aggie-offense was led by Braden Shewmake. He finished 2-for-4 with two RBIs, and plated runs in the first and fifth. Walker Pennington also picked up an RBI in the sixth to extend the lead to 3 runs.
Auburn falls to 24-10 on the season and 8-4 in SEC play while Texas A&M improves to 22-11 and 5-7.
Auburn returns to action on Tuesday for a midweek game at Samford at 6 p.m. CST.
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