March 27, 2015
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
STARKVILLE, Miss. - Sophomore right-hander Cole Lipscomb stymied Mississippi State over a career-best 7.0 innings pitched as Auburn baseball shutout the Bulldogs 5-0 on Friday at Dudy Noble Field.
The victory was the first road SEC shutout for Auburn since a 7-0 win at LSU on April 7, 2007. It was Auburn's first shutout of the Bulldogs in Starkville since 1976.
"Really proud of our guys and the way we came out and took it at them," Auburn head baseball coach Sunny Golloway said. "We tried to be aggressive with our hit and runs and our bunting game. [Daniel Robert] ran into one and we had it going pretty good early on."
The loss dropped Mississippi State to 18-10 on the season and 2-5 in league play.
In his first career SEC start, Lipscomb threw a career-high 117 pitches with seven strikeouts and four walks. He did not allow a run on four hits as he improved to 4-0 on the season.
Auburn (16-10, 2-5) manufactured a run in the top of the second after a leadoff walk to Blake Logan. The catcher moved to second on a hit and run groundout by Melvin Gray. He went to third on another grounder by Kyler Deese
Cody Nulph then gave the Tigers a 1-0 when he plated Logan on a two-out base hit to left.
The Tigers totaled only seven hits, but took advantage of two Mississippi State errors in the decisive third frame.
In the third inning, Daniel Robert doubled past a diving Mississippi State leftfielder Cody Brown for two more runs, then Logan's grounder went through the third baseman Matt Spruill's legs to make it 4-0 in favor of the Tigers.
Robert, riding a career-best six-game hitting streak, now has six RBIs in his last six games. His two RBIs led the Tigers on Friday.
Auburn added another run as Melvin Gray squeezed in Robert and was safe at first on a bunt single for a 5-0 advantage.
Auburn's Nulph and Grier both had two hits.
Trey Wingenter pitched the final two innings for Auburn. He struck out four and allowed just one hit.
Preston Brown (now 3-3; 9.0 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 6 K) threw a complete game in a losing effort for the Bulldogs.
The Tigers and Mississippi State meet for game two of the series on Saturday at 2 p.m.