Mize dazzles in win over Aggies

AUBURN | Casey Mize gave No. 13 Auburn exactly what it needed Friday night.

The All-American held No. 6 Texas A&M to one run on five hits to lead the Tigers to a 4-1 win at Plainsman Park in the conference opener for both schools.

Auburn improves to 18-1 overall and 1-0 in the SEC while the Aggies fall to 16-3 and 0-1.

“I just think the last two weeks the fastball has played so well,” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. “They bit us a couple of times. But he really for the most part continued to pitch, buckled down.

“Thirteen strikeouts against, not a good offense, but arguably one of the best offenses in America, that’s a hat-tipping performance.”

Mize (5-0) tied his career high with 13 strikeouts and didn’t issue a walk in 7.1 innings. He threw 98 pitches, 72 for strikes. He’s had back-to-back 13 strikeout performances, throwing a complete game no-hitter in his previous outing.

“It was OK. There were some pitches I really wasn’t happy with,” Mize said. “Definitely more mistakes this week than last week. I felt good. I just got a little tired at the end. Coach made the right move going to Calvin (Coker).

“That guy is as steady as can be, man. He’s lockdown so I was very confident handing the ball over to him.”

Coker, who came on with one out in the eighth and a runner on first base, held TAMU to one hit over the final 1.2 innings with one strikeout to earn his third save of the season.

Auburn came into the series without two of its top bullpen pitchers in Cody Greenhill (mono) and Andrew Mitchell (sore arm).

“Our pitching staff is aware of, hey, if we’re going to have any chance to win a series against one of the best teams in America, somebody is going to have to step up,” Thompson said. “A player that maybe hasn’t been in that normal routine will have to step up."

Auburn scored its four runs on just two hits, but the Aggies committed four errors and starter Stephen Kolek walked five batters.

The Tigers got a run in the first inning on a leadoff triple by Luke Jarvis and a groundout by Steven Williams, one in the third on an error by third baseman George Janca to allow Edouard Julien to score from third, one in the fourth on an error by Janca to allow Jay Estes to score from third and a run in the sixth on an RBI groundout by Will Holland.

Jarvis had Auburn’s only two hits. Williams had two RBI to raise his team-leading total to 23.

“They gave us an inch and we took it a mile,” Mize said. “We only had two hits but they just gave us so many freebies and our guys really took advantage of it and I think that was the difference in the game.”

The series continues Saturday at 2 p.m. and concludes Sunday at 1 p.m. Both games will be on SECN+ and WatchESPN.

TEAM NOTES

** Thompson received a good report from Mitchell’s MRI, which he underwent Wednesday.

“It couldn’t have gone any more positive, actually,” Thompson said. “Our next step is seeing when we can negotiate a bullpen and when we can negotiate a midweek outing. I think we would like to meet those two benchmarks … prior to him getting back in the weekend mix.”

** Sophomore RHP Davis Daniel (2-0, 5.06 ERA) will face TAMU sophomore LHP John Doxakis (3-0, 0.81) on Saturday.