May 18, 2017
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AUBURN, Ala. -- Keegan Thompson induced a first-pitch groundout from the first hitter he faced and kept on rolling from there, retiring 18 of the 20 hitters he faced before a weather delay halted both the game and his no-hit bid with none on in the top of the seventh. Cole Lipscomb followed Thompson and kept the no-hit bid alive until the top of the eighth as No. 23 Auburn opened up its final regular-season series with a 4-1 victory over Ole Miss.
"You need someone to get us going again, and that's what an ace pitcher does," Auburn head coach Butch Thompson said. "Keegan Thompson, I guess the lightning was the only thing that could stop him tonight."
Thompson (6-4) retired the first nine hitters he faced on the night before allowing a leadoff walk to Tate Blackman in the top of the fourth.
From that point on it was another eight straight before Blackman drew a two-out walk in the top of the sixth.
By the time the sixth was over, Thompson had fanned eight, matching his season-high.
"I think it's pretty close (to the best game I've pitched at Auburn)," Keegan Thompson said. "My slider worked really well with two strikes to get some swings and misses with strikeouts in the dirt. I was trying to work ahead and stay ahead to get to that pitch."
Lipscomb found similar success against the Ole Miss (31-23, 13-15 SEC) hitters, taking over after the lightning delay and throwing three full innings, allowing a run on three hits while striking out four to earn his team-leading sixth save of the season.
Offensively a Daniel Robert two-run home run was the highlight of a three-run bottom of the fourth, which also saw Jonah Todd drive in a run.
Auburn took advantage of a pair of errors on a Luke Jarvis grounder to third to take a 1-0 leads in the second.
"We kept the ball in the ballpark and Daniel Robert gets the pitch and hits it out of the ballpark," Butch Thompson said.
The win moved Auburn to 33-21 overall and 15-13 SEC, ensuring the program of a .500 SEC record for the first time since 2010 and gave the program 15 SEC wins for just the 19th time overall.
James McArthur (3-6) took the loss for Ole Miss, allowing three runs in 3 1/3 innings.
Dylan Ingram extended his hitting streak to a career-high 10 games in the bottom half of the first inning.
The two teams will return to the diamond on Friday at 6 p.m. Fr. RHP Davis Daniel (3-2) gets the nod on the hill for Auburn while Ole Miss will send Fr. RHP Ryan Rolison (6-2) to the mound. The game will air live on SECN+ and WTGZ-93.9 FM.