May 3, 2009
AUBURN, Ala. - Justin Hargett drove in a run with a fifth-inning single and a seventh-inning sac fly but Auburn couldn't avoid the series sweep, falling to No. 7 Ole Miss, 11-4, on Sunday afternoon at Plainsman Park.
Auburn trailed 5-3 after five after scoring three times in the bottom of the fifth but the Auburn bullpen couldn't keep Ole Miss off the board after that, surrendering a pair of runs in the sixth, seventh and ninth innings.
"You make the SEC Tournament by avoiding sweeps, so this is a tough weekend for us," Auburn Head Coach John Pawlowski said. "Ole Miss has a great club. They can do some damage in the post season, that's for sure. They have enough arms and they know how to handle the bat."
Brett Bukvich (8-1) was pushed into an emergency start for Ole Miss after scheduled starter Scott Bittle could not take the mound in the bottom of the first due to arm tenderness. The senior lefty Bukvich responded by tossing five-plus innings, allowing three runs on eight hits with three strikeouts to earn his second SEC win of the season.
Ole Miss (36-13, 16-8 SEC) went up 1-0 in the third when Jordan Henry grounded into a double play with Kevin Mort on third before busting things open with a four-run fifth off of Auburn starter Dexter Price (3-2) and Austin Hubbard, getting four singles and a pair of walks before an out was recorded. Logan Power and Matt Smith both delivered two-run singles in the inning and only a great play by Casey McElroy at short prevented a fifth run from scoring in the inning as he dove to his left, spun around and threw home to nail Matt Snyder at the plate for the second out of the inning.
"We were in the ball game but we just couldn't get out of trouble in the fifth inning," Pawlowski said. "We had our best reliever (Hubbard) on the mound. You don't want to go deep into the game and the weekend without using your best guy, so you figure that it's time to bring him in and keep it close. The game got out of hand there and then they scored some more late."
Brian Fletcher started Auburn's three-run answer in the bottom half of the fifth with a single and moved to a second on Tony Caldwell's one-out single. A Trent Mummey two-out single pushed Fletcher across before Hargett collected his first RBI of the day to make it 5-2. Ben Jones then scored Mummey with Auburn's fifth hit of the inning but Bukvich ended things when he got Hunter Morris to fly out to left.
With Hubbard on the mound, Ole Miss scored twice in the sixth on Power's bases-loaded single through the left side and then tacked on two more in the seventh on Evan Button's single off of Bradley Hendrix to go up 9-3. Power finished the game 5-for-6 with a pair of doubles and five RBI for the Rebels while Button went 3-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored.
Auburn (27-22, 8-16 SEC) drew to within five on Hargett's seventh-inning sac fly that scored Dan Gamache but once again Ole Miss answered with two unearned runs off of Ty Kelley in the ninth.
The game was halted for 52 minutes in the bottom of the ninth with one out and a man on first and Mummey at the plate due to rain.
Auburn will next play a three-game series against Kentucky, May 8-10 in Lexington, Ky. Game times are 6:30pm ET on Friday, 7pm on Saturday and 1pm on Sunday. The final two games of the series will air live on the Big Blue Sports Network.
Ole Miss 11, Auburn 4 (May 03, 2009 at Auburn, AL)
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Ole Miss............ 001 042 202 - 11 19 0 (36-13, 16-8 SEC)
Auburn.............. 000 030 100 - 4 11 2 (27-22, 8-16 SEC)
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Win-Brett Bukvich(8-1) Loss-Dexter Price(3-2) T-3:06 A-2209
