A lack of situational hitting plagued No. 4 Auburn in its 6-4 loss to Ole Miss, leaving 10 runners on base in a multitude of missed opportunities.
“The two-out hits were big,” Auburn head coach Butch Thompson said. “That was the difference in the ballgame. I liked how we kept having at-bats. I really felt like we had a chance to get back in that ballgame all the way up to the last batter at the plate. I’d like for them to play with the same resolve tomorrow and hopefully get a different result. We’ll keep fighting.”
With usual Friday starter Jake Marciano recovering from a two-start weekend in the Auburn Regional, Andreas Alvarez got the starting nod for Thompson’s squad Friday night. The right-hander took an aggressive approach against a deep Ole Miss lineup, landing 67% of his pitches for strikes and racking up 10 strikeouts in six innings of work.
Ole Miss deployed seasoned left-hander Hunter Elliott against the Tigers. Despite an unassuming 5.21 ERA this season, Elliott brought veteran experience to the mound as the only remaining player from the Rebels’ improbable 2022 national championship team. That clutch factor played well against the Tigers’ bats, as despite allowing six hits and four walks in 4.1 innings, he consistently closed out innings and allowed just two runs to score. The Mississippi native is now undefeated in seven career postseason starts.
Alvarez struck out the side in the first inning to the delight of a record-setting 10,627 fans inside Plainsman Park, but the sophomore struggled to carry his momentum between innings. After hitting Hayden Federico with a pitch early in the second, a pair of shallow singles brought the center fielder across the plate to put the Rebels on the board early.
Bristol Carter led off the third inning with a single to left field in what was his first at-bat since Auburn’s SEC Tournament contest against Arkansas. Mason McCraine followed with a first-pitch one-bagger of his own, and Eric Guevara was hit by a pitch to load the bases before Chase Fralick drove a fly ball deep enough to left to score Carter from third and tie the game at one.
Ole Miss took a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning after No. 7 hitter Austin Fawley’s two-out double set up an RBI opportunity for No. 8 hitter Brayden Randle, who punished an Alvarez fastball to put the Rebels back on top. The bottom third of Ole Miss’ lineup did the heavy lifting throughout the contest, combining for five of the team’s 10 hits and four of the team’s six RBIs.
Alvarez struck out his seventh batter to begin the top of the fifth, but later hung a curveball over the heart of the plate that Judd Utermark blasted over the War Eagle Wall for a two-run home run. The senior’s 22nd of the year gave the Rebels a three-run advantage over the hosts as the game reached its midpoint.
A scrappy bottom of the fifth saw the Tigers scratch a run across in response. McCraine’s leadoff walk led the way for a Chris Rembert RBI single, which made the score 4-2 and brought an end to Hunter Elliott’s night after 76 pitches. Relief pitcher Hudson Calhoun put the Rebels back into rhythm, taking down Ethin Bingaman with a strikeout and Bub Terrell with a flyout to end the inning.
With two outs and no runners on in the fifth, Brayden Randle took Andreas Alvarez to a full count as his pitch count eclipsed triple digits. The payoff pitch looked as if it may have caught the inside edge of the plate, but home plate umpire John Brammer ruled the borderline pitch a ball, putting Randle on first and bringing an end to Alvarez’s night. LJ Cormier, one of Auburn’s most reliable bullpen arms, was called out of the bullpen, but his first pitch to Collin Reuter was blasted to deep center field for a costly two-run home run, pushing the Rebels’ lead to 6-2.
McCraine’s second hit of the night was an RBI double down the left-field line, scoring Bristol Carter in the sixth after he had reached earlier on a fielder’s choice. Once again, however, the Tigers’ offense couldn’t rally more than one run across in an inning, as weak contact plagued the middle of the order.
McCraine gave the Tigers more life in the bottom of the ninth, blasting a leadoff home run to right field to put Auburn within two. After Eric Guevara flied out to center, Chase Fralick worked a tough at-bat and was eventually hit by a pitch to bring the tying run to the plate, but the comeback bid fell short as Chris Rembert and Ethin Bingaman both flied out to end the ball game.
“Rembert and Bingaman, those are exactly the type of approaches you need in that moment,” Thompson said. “We’ve got to keep swinging and make a difference with the two-out stuff. That’s where they got us tonight.”
Now facing elimination—a circumstance Auburn confronted for four straight games last weekend—the Tigers will regroup and take the field for Game 2 against the Rebels on Saturday at 4 p.m. CDT Alex Petrovic will start in front of yet another sold-out Plainsman Park, facing Ole Miss’ flamethrowing sophomore Taylor Rabe.
“We’ll be right back out here ready to go with Petrovic,” Thompson said. “When your back is against the wall, Petro and (Jackson) Sanders are two guys we’re pointing toward tomorrow.”
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