Aces high as Auburn opens SECT with a win
HOOVER | No. 23 Auburn used a pair of aces to beat Ole Miss 5-4 Tuesday night in the opening round of the SEC Tournament.
Keegan Thompson pitched the first three innings before turning it over to Casey Mize, who held the Rebels to two runs, one earned, on three hits in the final 6.0 innings.
“Keegan was not as sharp, he threw Thursday, six innings. But you know what, he did the job of getting us far enough, which allowed Casey to finish the ball game,” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said.
“His split was really, really good. He's just been down. His last two starts he's been trying to comeback and just hasn't commanded the ball as well. I thought he had much more command tonight. I think that was a jolt in the arm for our ball club to see Casey go out there and pitch that way tonight.”
Mize (7-2) earned the win in his first relief appearance of the season. He missed last weekend’s start against Ole Miss and had thrown just 10 innings over the last 40 days coming into the game as he dealt with arm soreness.
Mize said he stuck with his fastball and splitter against the Rebels and didn’t need his slider. He struck out nine and didn’t issue a walk.
“Putting us into double-elimination play was big. Winning this game was big for us, and I think we set ourselves up nicely for the rest of the tournament,” Mize said.
Blake Logan broke a 3-3 tie with a solo home run over the left field wall in the sixth and the Tigers added an important insurance run in the eighth when Luke Jarvis scored on a wild pitch.
Logan was also instrumental in the eighth when he laid down a sacrifice bunt that got Jarvis to third base with one out.
“I took the first one and I was like ‘you’ve got to be kidding me, why didn’t you swing at that one?’ I thought they would probably come back with it and I was able to put a pretty good swing on it,” said Logan of driving a 3-2 fastball from Ole Miss reliever Will Stokes over the fence.
Ole Miss jumped out to a 2-0 lead with runs in the first and second innings before the Tigers struck for three with two outs in the fourth. Will Holland drove home one with a double down the left field line and Jonah Todd drove in two with a triple over the head of the centerfielder.
The Rebels tied it with a double and Auburn error in the sixth before Logan put the Tigers back on top with his third home run of the season.
“We knew we were going to be hit with adversity. We just didn’t think it was going to be right out of the gate,” Logan said. “That’s what we talked about right before the game, we’re going to get hit and we’ve got to hit back. I thought we did a great job of fighting, everybody in the dugout. There wasn’t a doubt of if, but when.”
Thompson allowed two runs on four hits in 3.0 innings. He struck out three and walked one on 41 pitches, five days after holding the Rebels without a hit in 6.0 innings. He could return for another start in the tournament if Auburn advances to the weekend.
Auburn will play No. 1 seed Florida late Wednesday night in the second game of the night session.