May 25, 2018
By Jeff Shearer
AuburnTigers.com
HOOVER, Ala. - Looking to build on the longest outing of his Auburn career, Andrew Mitchell will start for Auburn Friday against Ole Miss in the SEC Tournament.
"If he still has fastball command, I think he's our best option," Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. "That's what he's done in his last two starts.
"If he can just shove the ball in the strike zone and get ahead and stay ahead in the count, I think he'll throw well."
Mitchell struck out nine in seven innings last Saturday in a 14-5 win against LSU. In his past two starts, the senior left-hander has 14 strikeouts with no walks in 12.1 innings.
Cody Greenhill will be Auburn's top bullpen option against the Rebels, Thompson said.
After winning its first two SEC Tournament games, Auburn lost 4-2 to Texas A&M Thursday before 9,651 at the Hoover Met.
After Texas A&M right fielder Allonte Wingate robbed Conor Davis of a home run in the third inning, Davis doubled in the eighth to score Auburn's first run against the Aggies.
"That was a beautiful swing," Thompson said. "The last two games, his at-bats have been as good as we've had."
Davis delivered another clutch double Wednesday, driving in two in the seventh to tie the game before Auburn added six runs in the last two innings in a 9-3 win over Ole Miss.
"We've got to get out there earlier," Davis said. "We've got to attack earlier instead of waiting until late in the game.
"We're pretty confident. We've got Andrew going again, he's been throwing well for us. Nothing's good about losing, but we're playing baseball tomorrow. So we're confident, we're ready to go."
Jay Estes produced two of Auburn's four hits against Texas A&M, his 14th multi-hit outing in 22 games. Batting .418 during that span, Estes leads the Tigers with a .327 season average
"I like how we continue to battle and finish a ballgame and compete," Thompson said. "I thought they gave us our best effort tonight playing three days in a row against a really good arm."
Thompson looks for Auburn to continue to battle Friday at 3 p.m. CT against the Rebels, knowing another win over a top five team can further bolster the Tigers' resume in hopes of hosting an NCAA regional next week.
"To come out with a lot of bounce," Thompson said. "If they'll give me this effort they've given me the first three days into a fourth day, they're not going to hear a word from me."
Davis said, "The message from Coach Thompson, we ran out of innings, it wasn't we ran out of fight. We've got to keep doing what we're doing and we'll be successful."
"We're pretty confident. We've got @AMitchell_41 going again. He's been throwing well for us."
🗣@ConorDavis13
For the second straight game, @AuburnBaseball LF had a late-inning RBI double.
After 4-2 loss Thursday to Texas A&M, Auburn plays Ole Miss Friday at 3 p.m. pic.twitter.com/kiE0iYNMAq- Jeff Shearer (@jeff_shearer) May 25, 2018
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @jeff_shearer