AUBURN | Auburn’s bullpen dominated Ole Miss Thursday night.

Richard Fitts and Cody Greenhill combined to hold the Rebels scoreless over the final 6.1 innings as the Tigers opened the three-game series with a 7-4 win at Plainsman Park.

Auburn improves to 25-13 overall and 9-7 in the SEC while Ole Miss falls to 26-13 and 9-7.

"Richard Fitts did it tonight for us when we needed it against a very powerful offense," Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. "I don’t think I ever give enough credit to Cody Greenhill, but buddy he was fresh tonight and let the baseball go. He’s been winning some big games."

Fitts (3-2) came on with a runner on second base and two outs in the third inning, and AU trailing 4-1. The freshman right-hander allowed just four hits in 4.1 innings with four strikeouts to earn the win. He didn’t issue a walk on 57 pitches.

“I was just trying to do something good for our team,” Fitts said. “We’re trying to get a little bit more confidence. We had a lot more energy in the dugout and before the game. It feels good to go out there and do what I can for the team.”

Greenhill struck out three of the six batters he faced in the eighth and ninth to earn his ninth save of the season.

Trailing 4-1 after two innings, Auburn struck for two runs in the third as Edouard Julien hit a bases-loaded single off the left field wall. The Tigers took the lead in the sixth on an RBI groundout by Will Holland and a sacrifice fly by Steven Williams.

Julien added a solo home run over the right field wall in the seventh and Ryan Bliss a sacrifice fly in the eighth.

“He hung that changeup,” said Julien of his eighth home run of the season “Usually I have trouble getting through balls to right field and I got through the changeup very well and that ball got up in the air and I was like, ‘That’s pretty good.’"

Julien finished 2 of 3 with a run scored and four RBI, Rankin Woley 2 of 4, Bliss 1 of 2 with a run scored and one RBI, and Judd Ward 1 of 2 with two runs scored.

"Offensively, what sticks out to me is when we had runners in scoring position tonight, I saw less swing and miss. I saw three sacrifice flies," Thompsons said. "Julien’s at-bat with the bases loaded off the wall to get it back to 4-3 made everything possible. Of course, he hit a big home runs there late."

Garrett Wade struggled in his first SEC start allowing four runs, one earned, in 2.2 innings. He struck out two, walked one, hit a batter and committed two errors.

Ole Miss starter Will Ethridge (5-3) took the loss allowing five runs on three hits and four walks in 5.0 innings.

"Great game," Thompson said. "Got behind, sloppy out of the gate for us, but we had some guys come do good work for us. The team stayed steady when we were behind, our team stayed steady to get back in the ball game and our team stayed steady when we went back up."

The series continues Friday at 6 p.m. CT as AU sophomore right-hander Tanner Burns (4-1, 2.05) faces OM freshman left-hander Doug Nikhazy (3-3, 3.57). Saturday’s finale will be at 1 p.m. Both games are on SECN+.