May 19, 2017
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AUBURN, Ala. -- Davis Daniel followed Keegan Thompson's stellar outing from Thursday with a gem of his own, holding Ole Miss off the board over six-plus innings as Auburn clinched its seventh SEC baseball series win of the year with a 9-1 victory on Friday night at Plainsman Park.
"It was just steady baseball. We had no errors and played great defense two days in a row with two really good starts," Auburn head coach Butch Thompson said. "Davis Daniel really pitched with his fastball tonight. That wound up being his best pitch. He got to two strikes and stayed with his fastball. Sometimes that's hard for a young pitcher to do, but he executed the game plan."
The freshman Daniel (4-2) struck out a career-high-tying eight Ole Miss hitters and limited its offense to just four hits and three walks to earn his first win since April 15 at Tennessee. The freshman would work into the seventh before departing with two on and one out, handing the ball to Gabe Klobosits for the final eight outs.
"It felt really good. It was probably one of my better outings of the year for sure," Daniel said. "The plan was to really trust my fastball, go out and throw a lot of strikes and work off my best pitch, which is my fastball."
Daniel's stellar line would not have been possible without some heady defense by Auburn. In the second Josh Anthony gunned down a runner trying to score on a squeeze play while in the fourth it was Daniel erasing a guy at the plate on a chopper back to the mound.
As an offense, Auburn erupted for 13 base hits, six of which for extra bases (five doubles, one triple), with Jay Estes collecting both his 17th double and first triple of the year.
Jonah Todd led off the bottom of the first with a single, making it 51 out of 55 games this season in which he has reached base safely. He would come around to score on a Josh Anthony two-run single to left as Auburn jumped out to a 2-0 lead.
Estes and Blake Logan both scorched RBI doubles in the third as Auburn stretched the lead to 4-0.
Dylan Ingram's leadoff double in the fourth extended his hitting streak to 11 games. He would come around to score on Conor Davis' RBI single, which extended the lead to 5-0 and closed the book on Ole Miss starter Ryan Rolison (6-3).
Rolison was charged for five runs over 3 2/3 innings on seven hits and two walks.
Auburn's four-run fifth made it a 9-0 game as Bo Decker doubled in a run, Daniel Robert walked with the bases loaded and Davis doubled in a pair, effectively putting the game out of reach.
Klobosits would allow one of the two runners he inherited to score and would surrender three hits over 2 2/3 innings.
The win improved Auburn's record to 34-21, 16-13 SEC while Ole Miss dropped to 31-24, 13-16 SEC.
The 16 SEC wins are the most for Auburn since the 2010 team went 20-10 and just the 11th time the program has reached that mark in its history.
The two teams close out the regular season on Saturday at 1 p.m. from Plainsman Park. Ole Miss is expected to start Jr. LHP David Parkinson (6-3) on the mound while Auburn will start Jr. LHP Andrew Mitchell (5-3). The game will air live on SECN+ and WTZG-93.9 FM.