The aftermath: Auburn goes down quietly in College World Series opener against Ole Miss

On3 imageby:Justin Hokanson06/18/22

_JHokanson

The Auburn baseball team continued their offensive slump, losing 5-1 to Ole Miss in both teams’ opening game of the College World Series.

The Tigers drop to 42-21 overall, while the Rebels improve to 38-22.

Auburn is now 3-11 all-time in the College World Series. The Tigers will have to stave off elimination on Monday at 1 p.m. CT against Stanford to avoid another 0-2 trip to Omaha under Butch Thompson.

Ole Miss has yet to lose in the postseason, and has only surrendered one run in the last three games.

Meanwhile, the Auburn offense that was bludgeoning the baseball during the Auburn Regional to the tune of 51 total runs in three games, has disappeared. After scoring seven runs against 3-seed Oregon State in the first game of the Super Regional, Auburn’s scored eight total runs in the last three games, only recording 12 total hits in the last 27 innings.

“That’s three games in a row where we couldn’t get a leadoff man on,” Thompson said.

In March, Ole Miss pitcher Dylan DeLucia entered in relief and threw 3.1 innings against the Tigers, allowing 6H, 2R, while striking out five, earning a win in the first game of the series at Auburn. DeLucia continued his fantastic pitching against the Tigers on Saturday night.

DeLucia finished with a line of 7.2 IP, 4H, R, 10K and zero walks. Auburn didn’t reach second base until the seventh inning following a Garrett Farquhar double.

Thompson said DeLucia set the slider “beneath us” and the fastball “above us,” saying the Auburn hitters couldn’t evaluate the strike zone all night.

Auburn starting pitcher Joseph Gonzalez threw fairly well, all things considered. Gonzalez finished with a line of 5 IP, 7H, 4R, 7K and BB. Credit Ole Miss for timely hitting, with three RBI off Gonzalez coming with two outs. Carson Skipper entered for Gonzalez and finished the game with a line of 4 IP, 4H, R and 5K, corralling the Ole Miss offense and keeping the game within reach.

Breaking down the scoring

TeamInnScoring Dec.PlayBatterPitcherOuts
OMTop 11B 5 2RBIAlderman singled to right field, advanced to second on a throwing error by 3b, 2 RBI (2-2 BBFK); Graham scored; Elko scored.AldermanGonzalez2
OMTop 3HR 7 1RBIGraham homered to left field, RBI (1-0 B).GrahamGonzalez2
OMTop 6DP5-3Chatagnier grounded into double play 3b to 1b (0-1 S); Harris advanced to second; Dunhurst out on the play; Alderman scored.ChatagnierSkipper0
OMTop 61B 7 1RBIMcCants singled to left field, RBI (1-1 FB); Harris scored.McCantsSkipper2
AUBot 71B LS 1RBIPeirce singled through the left side, RBI (2-1 BBK); DiChiara advanced to second; Farquhar scored.PeirceDeLucia0

Critical stats in Auburn’s loss to Ole Miss

Ole Miss hit .357 (5-14) with two outs, and .375 (6-16) with runners on base.

Four of the Rebels’ five RBIs came with two outs.

Auburn hit .100 (1-10) with two outs.

Ole Miss hit .300 (3-10) leading off. Auburn hit .111 (1-9).

Ole Miss’ left-handed hitting was 7-19 against Auburn pitching.

Gonzalez and Skipper combined for 13 strikeouts.

Every Auburn player struck out at least once, except for Brody Moore, including two each from 7-8-9 in the lineup – Kason Howell, Nate LaRue and Mike Bello.

Inside the box score of Ole Miss 5, Auburn 1

What’s next?

14-seed Auburn will play 2-seed Stanford in an elimination game on Monday at 1 p.m. CT. The Tigers are expected to start Trace Bright (4-4, 5.23 ERA) with the season on the line. Bright didn’t make it out of the first inning in Auburn’s first Super Regional game against Oregon State, a game in which the Tigers came back to win, 7-5.

The Tigers are 0-4 (in 14 total appearances for Auburn in Omaha) all-time against Stanford in the College World Series, including losing twice to Stanford in 1997.

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