A week ago, the No. 6 Auburn Tigers were lighting up the scoreboard in their opener against South Carolina. Now, they were unable to get a runner to cross home plate for eight innings. The Tigers were upset by No. 22 Ole Miss in Thursday night's series opener, 9-2.
“Those are things we can continue to control, is how we continue to come to work and those little things in the ballgame that didn’t give us an opportunity to have success or score those runs early,” head coach Butch Thompson said. “When you’re on the road, the earlier you can score, the more you can settle into the ballgame. That didn’t happen tonight.
Both teams had no runs on the board heading into the fifth inning. Auburn had Cam Tilly to thank for keeping the Rebels at bay, given that he struck out five batters in the first four innings. It wasn’t until the Rebels hit a sacrifice fly to bring in a runner and put their first points on the board in the bottom of the fifth.
Tilly would then be replaced, and the game started getting out of hand from there, especially in the bottom of the seventh, where the Rebels put up five runs on the board with five RBIs off three singles.
Auburn had no answer for starting Rebels pitcher Hunter Elliot, as he threw 96 pitches in seven innings, allowing only four hits in the process and picking off three runners.
"That's what we've done is swung it like crazy," said Thompson. "Hunter Elliott, I tip my hat to him. You've got a guy on the mound that's an ace. He absolutely got after us. You've got double-digit strikeouts, and I think I have another eight routine fly balls.”
“He's a fly ball pitcher, but we could not get to the top of the fastball. His stuff was good enough with enough spin that we offered it too often. The changeup was a riddle for us."
The Tigers were finally able to get on the board in the final inning when second baseman Eric Snow hit a double to drive in runners on second and third in Ike Irish and Lucas Steele. However, that would be all they could muster as Auburn’s last two batters would both strike out swinging.
Snow and Irish were the only two Tiger batters who had multiple hits in the game, as Snow led with three. Auburn would come up with only six hits to the Rebels' 11.
This game gave Auburn its 12th loss in SEC play and its 16th overall. Saturday is going to be all about adjustments for this squad.
"The things that we can control are how we come to work and those little things in the ballgame that didn't give us an opportunity to have success," said Thompson. "We've got to come right back out here with our guy (Sam) Dutton tomorrow and get back in this series."
Auburn and Ole Miss will play game two of their series at 7 p.m. CST Friday, May 16 on the SEC Network.
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William Halliday is a junior journalism major from Memphis, Tennessee. He started with the Plainsman in fall 2022.
You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @wphalliday3
