Tigers stumble in game one

GAINESVILLE | Butch Thompson needed Auburn at its best against No. 1 overall seed Florida. The Tigers were far from it.

Auburn committed two costly errors, struck out 14 times and Casey Mize had one of the worst outings of his career as the Gators won game one of the Gainesville Super Regional 8-2 at McKethan Stadium.

"We’re past (Brady) Singer. He threw a great outing. I tip my hat," Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. "They had the big inning and played a little cleaner defense."

The game turned in the third inning after the Tigers scratched out an early 2-0 lead. Florida jumped on Mize for four runs off four hits and a walk to take a 4-2 lead.

Auburn gifted Florida two more runs on back-to-back throwing errors by Will Holland and Josh Anthony in the fifth.

Mize, who was drafted No. 1 overall by the Detroit Tigers on Monday, allowed a career-high six runs on seven hits and a career-high four walks in 5.0 innings to fall to 10-6 on the season.

“I mean, no one’s perfect,” Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “I think sometimes we put too much expectations on these young guys, and you got to keep in mind they’re 21 years old still. Mize has had, you know, he’s been unbelievable the whole entire year and really his career. You go back to last year, we played at Auburn and he beat us 1-0. I just think we had some good approaches today. I think it’s that simple.”

Davis Daniel allowed two runs on three hits with four strikeouts over the final 3.0 innings.

In what was billed as a battle of aces, Florida’s Singer was the clear winner. The No. 18 overall pick held the Tigers to two runs on four hits with nine strikeouts in 6.2 innings to improve to 12-1 on the season.

After throwing 72 pitches and allowing two runs in the first three innings, Singer shutout Auburn for the next 3.2 innings on 47 pitches.

“I thought he stopped a good offensive ball club in a good rhythm,” Thompson said. “My thing as a coach, I think they were trying to have good at-bats. Some of the pitches I saw on replay, I thought some balls starting in the fourth inning really took off and got down inside our right-handed hitters. I thought his stuff was better and he started laying some good tracks from the fourth inning on.”

The Tigers finished with just five hits and struck out 14 times. Anthony was 2-for-3 with one RBI while Edouard Julien was 1-for-3 with a run scored and one RBI. His 69th RBI is an Auburn freshman record.

Auburn falls to 42-22 on the season while Florida improves to 46-18.

Game two is set for 11 a.m. CT Sunday morning on ESPN. If a third game is necessary, it will be 7:30 p.m. Monday night on ESPN.