May 25, 2018
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HOOVER, Ala. ââ'¬" No. 7 seed Auburn was eliminated from the SEC Tournament with a 6-0 loss to No. 2 seed Ole Miss Friday evening at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
Auburn (39-21, 15-15 SEC) fell behind early and couldn't get the offense going while Ole Miss (44-15, 18-12 SEC) used a trio of long balls to advance to the semifinals.
"I want our goal for Auburn baseball to be part of this SEC Tournament on the weekend," head coach Butch Thompson said. "We really have enjoyed this experience and we want to stay to be a part of it. It ends tonight for us and we'll move on to what's next, but we can all agree as men that the goal is to continue on. We just didn't do enough today to get that opportunity. This is a special tournament. Outside of Omaha, there's nothing like it. Hoover is a goal, a destination and something that our program will continue to build up for it to be a meaningful event for us."
Both starting pitchers factored into the decision as Andrew Mitchell (2-2, 4.01) suffered the loss while his counterpart James McArthur (6-0, 4.10) earned the win.
Mitchell held the Rebels without a hit and only allowed two baserunners while striking out five batters through three innings. However, Ole Miss got to the left-hander with a leadoff single that was followed by a two-run home run from Thomas Dillard to start the fourth inning.
Mitchell matched a career high with nine strikeouts for the second straight outing, but was run from the game as Ole Miss added to its lead with a one-out RBI double in the sixth. He allowed four runs on four hits and issued three walks.
Freshman right-hander Cody Greenhill entered in relief of the redshirt-senior southpaw, and the inherited runner came in to score on an infield single and RBI groundout to extend the lead to 4-0.
Brendan Venter and Edouard Julien ripped back-to-back one-out singles to run McArthur from the game in the bottom of the sixth, but Ole Miss reliever Max Cioffi stranded both runners to keep the Tigers off the scoreboard.
The Rebels added to their lead with a pair of solo home runs from Jacob Adams and Chase Cockrell to start the seventh and ninth innings, respectively, and capped off the scoring for the game with a RBI single later in the last at-bat.
"I believe in the baseball committee and I think they're going to do what's best for college baseball," Thompson added. "I do believe in my heart that if there's a fifth host award to the SEC it would be Auburn University."
Auburn will return to The Plains and await its NCAA Tournament fate. The 16 regional host sites will be announced on NCAA.com Sunday at 7:30 p.m. CT, and the entire NCAA Tournament field will be announced on ESPNU Monday at 11 a.m. CT.