Auburn shuts down slumping Ole Miss
Published 11:56 pm Friday, May 19, 2017
AUBURN, Ala. — Ole Miss is skidding, screeching and crashing its way toward the postseason.
The one thing it isn’t doing is running — or scoring runs, to be more specific.
Davis Daniel allowed one run and struck out eight in 6 1/3 innings Friday, and Auburn beat Ole Miss 9-1 to clinch their series with a second straight victory.
“It was just steady baseball. We had no errors and played great defense two days in a row with two really good starts,” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. “Davis Daniel really pitched with his fastball tonight. That wound up being his best pitch. He got to two strikes and stayed with his fastball. Sometimes that’s hard for a young pitcher to do, but he executed the game plan.”
Ole Miss (31-24, 13-16 Southeastern Conference) has scored two runs and has just 15 hits in its last three games, all losses. In all, the Rebels have lost seven of their last nine games heading into Saturday’s regular-season finale and next week’s SEC Tournament.
The latest slump has come against a resurgent Auburn (34-21, 16-13) team that had lost seven straight games before winning the series opener on Thursday.
Daniel (4-2), a freshman, scattered four hits and three walks in his 6 1/3 innings to give the Tigers their second quality start in a row. Keegan Thompson pitched six no-hit innings in the opener.
Gabe Klobosits pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings to close out Friday’s victory.
“It felt really good. It was probably one of my better outings of the year for sure,” Daniel said. “The plan was to really trust my fastball, go out and throw a lot of strikes and work off my best pitch, which is my fastball.”
Ole Miss had two runners thrown out at the plate in the first four innings. It didn’t score until Tate Blackman delivered an RBI single in the seventh to make it 9-1.
Auburn had 13 hits, including five doubles and a triple. Conor Davis went 3-for-5 with a double and three RBIs, while Jay Estes was 2-for-5 with a double, RBI and two runs scored.
Ole Miss starting pitcher Ryan Rolison (6-3) allowed five runs in only 3 2/3 innings and took the loss. He gave up seven hits.