AUBURN | Jack Owen’s first start in nearly seven weeks wasn’t spectacular but it was plenty good enough.

The sophomore lefty held Alabama to one run in 5.0 innings to lead Auburn to a 4-1 win Friday night at Plainsman Park. The Tigers improve to 28-17 overall and 11-11 in the SEC while the Tide falls to 26-20 and 5-17.

"Good, solid baseball game tonight. Just clean all the way around," Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. "Jack Owen, ehh hit or miss, but at the end of the day you got five innings and one run. Made enough plays."

In his first start since March 16 due to shoulder soreness, Owen (4-0) scattered five hits and walked two to earn his first win since March 9. He didn’t strikeout a batter on 63 pitches.

"I felt good in the bullpen. I was excited to get us off to a good start. Then, the command wasn’t really there and the stuff wasn’t really there, so I was trying to battle through some things," Owens said, "but, like, Ryan Bliss in the field, Rankin (Woley) twice, like, everyone was making good plays behind me. So it didn’t even matter that I didn’t have my best stuff because everyone else was ready to play today, so it was huge."

Elliott Anderson held Alabama to two hits over the next 3.0 innings and Cody Greenhill struck out two of three batter in the ninth to close out the win.

Defensively, AU turned three double plays including a 4-3 in the first inning on a liner to Bliss at second, a 3-6 in the third on a ground ball to Woley at first and a 3-6-1 in the seventh.

"I thought the double plays were huge tonight on defense. I thought we played stellar defense, especially on the right side," Thompson said.

Auburn took a 2-0 lead in the first on a sacrifice fly by Matt Scheffler and a two-out RBI double by Woley. Woley struck again with two outs in the fifth, driving a double deep to right field to bring home two more runs.

The Tigers added an insurance run in the eighth on a two-out double by Bliss followed by an RBI triple by Edouard Julien, which broke an 0-for-17 streak.

Woley was 2 of 4 with three RBI and Bliss 2 of 4 with two runs scored along with several defensive gems. Scheffler and Julien had a hit and one RBI apiece. Four of AU's five runs came with two outs.

"I think the team has kind of struggled with (two-out hits) and myself in particular," Woley said. "I have definitely been wanting to come up big for the team in those situations. The past couple of weeks we’ve been looking for a spark to get the team going. Two-out hits win ballgames in the SEC. Having runners on is a premium and anytime you can knock them in it makes the pitchers feel better and the players feel better and puts more pressure on the other team."

The series continues Saturday at 7 p.m. CT and concludes Sunday at 3 p.m. Both games will be aired on SEC Network.