OXFORD, Miss. – Auburn held No. 4 Ole Miss scoreless in its final five at-bats, but the Tigers' comeback effort fell a run short, losing game two of the series 6-5 Saturday at Swayze Field.
The Tigers put the tying run on base in the top of the ninth, and Tyler Miller, who homered in his previous at-bat, represented the go-ahead run. The Auburn first baseman squared up a fastball and sent it into the gap in right-center, but it hung up just enough to be caught shy of the wall to end the game.
"We just got out of the gate slow, but didn't let them score after the third inning," head coach Butch Thompson said. "It's just going to be hard for me to say anything negative about my ballclub. I'm going to hang in there with them. If I can ever get a team just to compete this way every single day and be right there with the tying run on base and keep swinging the bat and keep fighting to get back in the game, I'm going to hang with them."
Ole Miss scored six runs on five hits in the first three innings, but Auburn relievers Brooks Fuller, Carson Swilling and Blake Burkhalter combined to hold the Rebels scoreless for the remainder of the game. Ole Miss stranded 13 runners in the contest.
"Those three did an amazing job for us, and our offense just kept playing," Thompson added. "They've been through a lot. Hopefully we're starting to see them turn the corner a little bit. We're going to need them moving forward. For the moment and for being in this setting, they really settled themselves."
The Tigers struck in the top of the first when Miller laced a single back up the middle to score Judd Ward from second. However, Ole Miss answered in the home half with a run on a balk and took a 3-1 lead on a two-run double in the second.
Ryan Bliss led off the third with a solo homer that cut the deficit to one. Ward and Rankin Woley then reached on back-to-back singles to put runners on the corners with no one out, but Ole Miss pitcher Drew McDaniel got a popup and two strikeouts to get out of the inning without further damage.
Ole Miss answered again in the home half, scoring three runs on one hit, a walk, error and hit-by-pitch to take a 6-2 lead through three.
Fuller came on in relief of starting pitcher Mason Barnett in the fourth and worked 2.1 scoreless innings. Fuller left the bases loaded to hold Ole Miss scoreless in his first inning of work.
John Samuel Shenker came through with a pinch-hit, RBI double down the right-field line to cut the Ole Miss lead to 6-3 in the sixth. Bliss and Miller then hit solo home runs in the seventh to make it a one-run game. The homer was Bliss' second of the game, marking his fifth straight multi-hit contest and second career game with two home runs.
After Auburn went down in order and Ole Miss left the bases loaded in the eighth, Woley battled with two outs and two strikes, singling through the right side to put the tying run aboard in the top of the ninth. Pinch runner Garrett Farquhar entered for Woley, but Miller's aforementioned fly ball to right-center ended the game.
Ward collected a team-high three hits and led the way for Auburn's one through four hitters, who went a combined 9-for-19 in the contest. Woley extended his hit streak to 11 games, and Bliss turned in his 36th multi-hit effort in the last 72 games dating back to 2019.
The series finale between Auburn and Ole Miss is set for Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
