What Went Wrong in Auburn Baseball's Super Regional Game 1 Loss to Ole Miss

For the second season in a row, the Auburn Tigers got the opportunity to host a Super Regional in the NCAA Tournament. However, the Tigers lost the opener in consecutive seasons.

Auburn fell to Ole Miss 6-4 at Plainsman Park on Friday night, but it didn’t come without opportunity for the Tigers to take advantage of the opening game of the second round of the tournament.

Even with another program record of attendance at home with over 10,000 fans, head coach Butch Thompson saw his team go 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position while recording only one less hit than the Rebels. That included two double plays in this situation with only one out in the second and third inning.

“We did do the part of getting the runners on,” Thompson said after the game, “and we will need to continue to do that to stay competitive.”

On the mound, Andreas Alvarez made opposing batters whiff at an impressive rate, striking out 10 Ole Miss batters in 5.2 innings of play. Inversely, he allowed seven hits and five earned runs to give Ole Miss a 4-2 lead by the time he went to the dugout. In relief, LJ Cormier allowed a home run during his first at-bat, then cleaned it up with allowing only two hits for the remaining three innings.

The Auburn head coach said that sometimes, that’s the way baseball happens. Especially on offense, the Tigers struggled to plate runs while their opponent took advantage with runners on base.

“I thought the moments when we worked to get those runners on, I think they paid it off just a little bit more,” Thompson said. “Who knows what type of game we get tomorrow, but you still can’t look past tomorrow’s game with where we’re at.”

Similarly, Auburn lost its first home game in the regional round to Milwaukee, entering the NCAA Tournament with a losing record. Leadoff designated hitter Mason McCraine said that last weekend’s loss to the Panthers brought the team closer together.

He believes that it will happen again in the chunk of hours that will pass between the first and second game of the series.

“I think it’s been the same thing the whole season,” McCraine said postgame. “We’re a really close team, and I think it’s going to bring us closer. I think we’ll come together as a group again and get closer. If not, then find a way.”

The freshman was the only player with multiple hits for Auburn on Friday night. Meanwhile, four Rebels had two hits in their respective win, having hot spots within the lineup that consistently brought in runs. Third baseman Judd Utermark, outfielder Brayden Randle, catcher Austin Fawley and designated hitter Collin Reuter all had two runs batted in for Ole Miss that led to a win.

So, once again, Auburn has to remain perfect to get to a College World Series appearance for the first time in four years. Thompson knows one thing about his team for certain: they won’t back down from another tough challenge.

“We’ll keep fighting, but we just need to be invested into tomorrow,” he said. “Again, I thought we played great. I thought we had the one error there that we worked around, and I thought, for the most part, we played really good baseball.”

Sign up for our free Auburn Tigers newsletter and follow us on Facebook and X for the latest news!

Add us as a preferred source on Google