Lack of Offense Prevents Auburn Baseball from Picking up a Win in Pensacola
The Auburn baseball team (6-6) combined to score just four runs over the weekend as they were handed losses by Troy, Michigan State and Southern Miss in the Cox Diamond Invitational at Blue Wahoos Stadium in Pensacola, Fla.
On Friday night the Tigers put up three runs in the third inning to take a 3-0 lead over Troy, but a run in the fourth and two in the fifth by the Trojans knotted the gamed back up. No one else scored in each of the next five and half frames until Troy won a walk-off in the bottom of the 11th.
Anfernee Grier was 3-5 with a run scored, while Niko Buentello picked up 2 RBIs. Justin Camp was solid, but not great on the mound giving up 3 earned runs on 7 hits and 4 walks with 4 strikeouts in 6.1 innings.
Casey Mize was a tough-luck loser on Saturday against Michigan State as he struck out a career-high eight batters over 7 innings, but allowed 2 earned runs, which was all the Spartans needed as the Tigers only managed five hits and failed to bring a runner across the plate as Michigan State won the game 3-0.
The Tigers offense had plenty of chances to score on Sunday as they out-hit Southern Miss 7-2, but they only managed to score once as they lost 3-1. Jordan Ebert had a good day at the plate going 3-4 with an RBI.
Cole Lipscomb was back out on the mound for Auburn after only pitching two innings the past couple of weeks. He lasted 6.2 innings and only allowed 2 hits, but he walked five batters and gave up 2 earned runs; however, he did strikeout eight batters.
I don’t know if the kids were just having too much fun at the beach, or if the pitching was just that dominant, but no team in this Invitational scored more than 6 runs in any one game. The offense was basically non-existent this weekend.
Hopefully that’s not the case for the Tigers going forward as they had been swinging the bats rather well. I said in the preview they would be facing three quality opponents, and that certainly proved to be the case, but the Tigers still should have won at least two of these games.
Now they have to face a Georgia Tech team this week that is currently 11-0 before facing Oral Roberts over the weekend at home. They have just five more games to get prepared for SEC play, and the conference currently boasts eight teams that are ranked in the Top 25.
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The team stats look good for Auburn as they’re hitting .295 collectively and have a staff ERA of 3.14, but they need to start picking up some wins with that good play.
Grier continues to lead the Tigers offensively with a .468 average and 18 runs scored, while Niko Buentello is hitting .319 with 3 home runs and 22 RBIs. Jordan Ebert has been swinging the bat well too with a .396 average.
It was good to see Lipscomb back on the mound this past weekend and throwing the ball well. It’s imperative that he bolster the Tiger rotation throughout SEC play. Justin Camp continues to throw the ball well, and Mize looked really good in his first start of the season. Hopefully coach Butch Thompson has figured out his rotation and that will be a strong point going forward.
As mentioned, Auburn baseball will take on the Yellow Jackets at home this Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. CT before beginning a three-game set against Oral Roberts at home over the weekend.