The No. 12 Auburn Tigers did not get conference play off to a good start, getting swept by the No. 8 Vanderbilt Commodores on the road in Nashville this weekend.
Auburn took an 11-1 run-rule loss in eight innings on Friday, a 13-5 loss on Saturday and a 9-6 loss on Sunday.
The Tigers struck first on Friday night when Ike Irish scored on a wild pitch, but the Commodores were unstoppable the rest of the night.
Chase Allsup got the start for Auburn. He allowed seven runs off of nine hits in four innings of action.
“If you try to put it in the simplest form, I think they got on the fastball. I thought that was huge in the second inning. They got the base hit with two outs up the middle and then they got the home run. All that damage was with two fastballs,” Auburn head coach Butch Thompson said. “We never could answer and we could not get on his fastball. Not enough linking up and not enough being able to get on his fastball.”
Auburn got out in front again on Saturday, scoring two runs in the top of the first inning.
Vanderbilt scored three runs of its own in the bottom of the first inning and never looked back, picking up another convincing win.
Carson Myers got the start for Auburn and allowed four runs off of six hits in 3.1 innings of work.
“I just think this is a team that’s won 11 or 12 in a row in Vanderbilt,” Thompson said. “They’re a handful at the plate, and we’re doing everything we can. They’re absolutely having a little bit tougher at-bats, but at the same time I think our guys are absolutely competing. The difference has been their at-bats are just a tick better up and down the lineup. They linked up with two outs and made us pay.”
Auburn got on the board first again on Sunday and held a 4-3 lead going into the bottom of the sixth inning, but a four-run rally by the Commodores was enough to put them in control and allowed them to finish off the sweep.
“Honestly, I liked the effort so much more today with our guys,” Thompson said. “They were engaged and stayed with it the entire ballgame.
“That sixth inning was the ballgame today. Really in the middle innings is where the absolutely got to us even though we thought we were lined up with where we wanted to be with our pitching staff," he added.
Auburn returns to action on Tuesday when it takes on the South Alabama Jaguars at 6 p.m. CT at Riverwalk Stadium in Montgomery. The game can be live-streamed on WarEagle+, and the Auburn Sports Network broadcast can be streamed anywhere on the Auburn Athletics app.
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email daniel.locke@1819news.com.
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