The clutch hit eluded No. 16 Auburn Thursday night.

The Tigers were 1-for-10 with runners on base in a 5-4 loss to No. 5 Ole Miss at Swayze Field. Auburn falls to 35-15 overall and 13-12 in the SEC while while the Rebels improve to 37-13 and 14-11.

“It’s the one more hit with a guy in scoring position, maybe catching one more ball. It was the one,” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. “We’ll have to regroup. Now, we can look at it and try to find your positive angles heading into tomorrow.

“You got Casey Mize going for you on the mound and you almost got something done here and you played a really close, competitive ballgame. Hopefully, we’ll come out guns a blazing with our best guy on the mound tomorrow.”

Ole Miss built a 4-0 lead after four innings before the Tigers struck for a run in the sixth on a solo home run by Steven Williams, his ninth of the season.

The Rebels answered with a run in the bottom of the sixth, but Auburn added three more in the seventh with Luke Jarvis scoring on a wild pitch, and Josh Anthony and Conor Davis scoring on an error.

Brendan Venter narrowly missed a game-tying home run with one out in the eight when his ball bounced off the top of the right field wall for a double, and he was left stranded at second.

Auburn, which was 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position, loaded the bases with one out in the third and failed to score.

Jay Estes had two of Auburn’s six hits to extend his multi-hit streak to five games.

Davis Daniel (3-4) took the loss allowing five runs on six hits in 5.0 innings. He struck out five and issued two walks. Elliott Anderson, Calvin Coker and Andrew Mitchell combined to hold the Rebels scoreless for the final 3.0 innings.

Game two will be Friday at 6:30 p.m. CT and the series finale Saturday at 4 p.m. Both games will be on SECN+ and WatchESPN.