Tigers drop 6th-straight game

No. 11 LSU took advantage of just about every Keegan Thompson mistake to come away with a 5-3 win over No. 14 Auburn Friday night at Alex Box Stadium.

With the game tied 3-3 in the seventh, Michael Papierski hit a two-run home run over the right field wall off Thompson that proved to be the difference.

A sixth-straight loss drops Auburn to 32-20 overall and 14-12 in the SEC.

“I just told our team we either win or we learn,” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. “We’re in a a tough run, like life, of trying to learn what this is trying to teach us. We'll continue to try to learn something and come out tomorrow and win a game.”

Keegan Thompson (5-4) allowed five runs on six hits with four strikeouts and two costly walks in 7.0 innings. He walked the leadoff batter in the third and he came around to score on an RBI groundout to give LSU a 1-0 lead.

He hung a breaking ball for a two-out, two-run home run to Zach Watson, LSU’s No. 9 hitter, in the fifth and walked the leadoff batter in the seventh, who came around to score on Papierski’s fifth home run of the season.

“Both walks were to start an inning and they really wanted to hit and run early in the count,” Butch Thompson said. “The two home runs, the nine-hole with the runner on second base and then Papierski’s when we worked so hard to tie it, I thought outside of those two swings, he was about as efficient as he’s been.”

Auburn had nine hits, all singles, but continued its trend of hitting into double plays — two in the first two innings — and leaving runners on base — eight. Auburn has left a total of 68 runners on base during the six-game losing streak.

Auburn broke a 15-inning scoreless streak in the sixth when Dylan Ingram hit a sacrifice fly to score Jonah Todd from third base. The Tigers added two more in the seventh on a throwing error by LSU third baseman Josh Smith that allowed Jay Estes to score from first followed by an RBI single by Todd.

Todd was 4-of-5 to raise his average to .391.

“Our offense has got to score some more runs,” Butch Thompson said. “We’ve scored three runs now in two games. That’s hard to win at home, on the moon, on the road at Alex Box Stadium. We’ve got to keep going until it happens.

“I thought the effort was unbelievable tonight by our ball club and we played hard. That probably lets us know that we’re closer to coming back and getting a win.”

The series concludes Saturday at noon on the SEC Network.