Offense falters in series loss

There was no dramatic comeback for No. 7 Auburn this Sunday.

The Tigers managed just six hits to fall 3-1 at Texas A&M and lose their first series after opening the season with seven-straight series wins.

Auburn falls to 24-10 overall and 8-4 in the SEC while Texas A&M improves to 22-11 and 5-7. The Tigers won Friday’s opener 2-1 but lost Saturday 6-3.

“We only scored six runs this weekend,” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. “We’ve talked all year long about Sunday being the tough day and we’ve been the toughest team. This is the first time this year a team really competed against us and maybe played harder than us today.”

A week after Conor Davis hit a walk-off, three-run home run to beat South Carolina 6-5, Auburn was held in check by Texas A&M starter Stephen Kolek, who allowed five hits and struck out seven in 8.0 innings to improve to 2-2 on the season.

Mitchell Kilkenny threw a scoreless ninth to earn his fourth save.

Davis had two doubles and scored Auburn’s lone run on an RBI single by Bowen McGuffin in the eighth.

Auburn starter Davis Daniel (2-2) took the loss allowing three runs on nine hits in 5.1 innings. He struck out five and issued one walk. Andrew Mitchell allowed one hit in 1.2 innings and Cole Lipscomb threw a perfect eighth.

“Daniel did a good job but when five of those six leadoff batters get on it feels like we played prevent defense all day,” Thompson said. “Andrew Mitchell was really sharp for us and Cole Lipscomb had one of his better innings. We did enough, definitely, on the mound.”

Auburn plays at Samford Tuesday night a 6 p.m. CT and returns to conference play with a three-game series at Tennessee starting Thursday.