OXFORD, Miss. – No. 2 Auburn took a scoreless game into the fifth inning, but No. 22 Ole Miss scored nine unanswered runs in the fifth through seventh frames to claim a 9-2 win in the series opener Thursday at Swayze Field.
“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. I tip my hat to Hunter Elliott. We have to come back out here with our guy (Samuel) Dutton tomorrow and get back in this series.”
Making his fourth start of the season, Cam Tilly (3-2) retired the first three batters he faced with two strikeouts in the first inning before running into some traffic on the bases in the second. A hit batter and walk put two aboard with one out, but Tilly buckled down to get a strikeout and lineout to keep the game scoreless.
Tilly worked his second clean inning in the fourth, and Auburn (37-16, 16-12 SEC) threatened with a runner in scoring position and one out in the top of the fifth. Eric Snow singled and stole second, but a nine-pitch strikeout and lineout to right field ended the threat for the Tigers.
Ole Miss (36-17, 15-13 SEC) put two aboard with back-to-back hit batters to start the bottom of the fifth, and a one-out single to right loaded the bases. A sacrifice fly to left field brought in the first run of the game, and a run on a mental mistake with the runner attempting to move up on a wild pitch doubled the lead.
Bristol Carter drew a leadoff walk in the sixth and stole second with nobody out but was left there as a strikeout, flyout and groundout ended the inning.
Ole Miss put the first two batters in the bottom of the sixth aboard for the second straight inning and added a pair of runs on a bloop single down the right field line and cue shot single that knuckled on Deric Fabian at shortstop and made its way into center field to make it 4-0.
The Rebels put the first two aboard again in the seventh and both came in to score on a two-run single back up the middle from Judd Utermark. With the inning extended thanks to a leadoff error, the Rebels scored three more unearned runs later in the inning to extend the lead to 9-0.
Chris Rembert nearly hit a solo homer with two outs in the eighth, but center fielder Isaac Humphrey went to the top of the wall and made the catch to end the inning.
Ben Schorr turned in 1.2 scoreless inning on the mound with three strikeouts, and the Tigers got on the scoreboard with a two-run double from Snow in the ninth. The hit was Snow’s third of the game. Ike Irish doubled for his second hit after Eric Guevara drew a leadoff walk in the inning. Snow and Irish accounted for five of Auburn’s six hits.
Due to the threat of weather later in the day Friday, game two between the Tigers and Rebels has been moved up from 7 p.m. to 6 p.m. CT.