Auburn baseball's SEC Tournament ends, awaits NCAA postseason fate
Auburn baseball fell to No. 9-seed Alabama 7-4 in an elimination game on Thursday afternoon at the SEC Tournament. The Tigers fall to 34-21-1 overall with the loss and now await their NCAA postseason fate.
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THE SKINNY: Auburn was thoroughly outplayed on Thursday, recording only seven hits and four runs, while allowing 14 hits and seven runs to rival Alabama.
- It’s Auburn’s fifth-straight loss to Alabama in the SEC Tournament. The last time the Tigers beat the Tide in the SEC Tournament was in 1998 when the tournament was played in Columbus, Ga.
- Alabama took three of four games this season against Auburn.
- The Tigers are 1-6 in their last seven SEC Tournament games.
- Bryson Ware’s solo home run in the sixth inning gave Ware 24 for the season. That’s a new Auburn single-season record, passing the 23 home runs Hunter Morris hit in 2010.
- Auburn hit six home runs in three games at the Hoover Met.
- The Tigers struck out 13 times in the game. Alabama struck out just three times. Auburn was 2-10 with runners in scoring position compared to Alabama going 4-9 with RISP.
- Auburn threatened in the ninth inning. Chris Stanfield walked, stole second, stole third, and scored on a RBI single by Cole Foster. Ware then struck out, followed by an Ike Irish walk to give the Tigers runners on first and second with one out. But a Kirby strike out and Cooper McMurray pop out ended the game.
- Konner Copeland started for Auburn and struggled, allowing eight hits and four runs in 3.1 innings of work.
- Tanner Bauman entered and didn’t fare much better, throwing 1.2 innings and allowing four hits and three runs. Will Cannon finally settled things down, throwing 3.0 innings of relief and allowing just two hits.
- Second baseman Brody Wortham recorded two of Auburn’s seven hits, subbing for Caden Green.
- Butch Thompson made sure to get some reserve players opportunities as postseason play is up next. Carter Wright started at catcher, replacing Nate LaRue, although LaRue entered the game later on. Wortham replaced Green. Justin Kirby pinch hit and replaced Bobby Peirce. Mike Bello pinch hit late in the game in place of LaRue, moving Ike Irish to catcher.
WHAT’S NEXT? Auburn will return home and await their NCAA Tournament fate.
- D1Baseball’s latest projections on Thursday morning still included Auburn as a host site, slotting the Tigers as the No. 10 overall national seed. Alabama is also a projected host team, so the loss on Thursday shouldn’t hurt the Tigers’ chances of hosting in terms of falling to an inferior opponent.
- Auburn lost their first game of the SEC Tournament last season to Kentucky. The Tigers then hosted a regional and made a run to Omaha for the College World Series. Winning in Hoover, Ala. isn’t always a barometer of postseason success.
