Ole Miss relievers allowed two inherited runners to score in a three-run seventh, and Auburn scored all nine of its runs over the last seven outs in a 9-3 win at the Hoover Met on Wednesday in the secound round of the SEC tournament.
The Rebels fell into the loser’s bracket where they faced No. 3 seed Georgia this morning.
Relievers Greer Holston, Will Ethridge and Houston Roth combined to allow five hits, five walks and seven runs in 22/3 innings.
Tanner Burns, a right-hander, limited the SEC’s top-hitting offense to six hits and one earned run in seven innings.
“My last outing at Ole Miss wasn’t too hot, and that was in the back of my mind,” Burns said.
“When you’re able to locate that big fastball on both sides of the plate makes it really difficult for hitters. It doesn’t happen to us much, but we just couldn’t catch up to it,” Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said.
Ole Miss (42-15) was unable to force Auburn (39-19) to use a bullpen that worked overtime in an 11-inning win against Kentucky on Tuesday.
Auburn’s Edouard Julien put an exclamation point on the Rebels’ sketchy bullpen performance with a grand slam off Roth in the ninth.
“We just didn’t throw enough strikes. We didn’t attack the zone. The three guys that came in didn’t command it enough,” Bianco said.
Ryan Rolison, the Ole Miss left-hander, had a no-hitter for 51/3 innings, a shutout for six, but the bullpen couldn’t put out the fire when he left with runners at first and second and one out in the seventh.
Ole Miss took the lead in the third with two unearned runs on a throwing error by shortstop Will Holland off a ground ball from Ryan Olenek.
Holston gave up a two-run double in the seventh, and before he was replaced by Ethridge, the go-ahead run scored on a passed ball.
Ethridge got two outs to end the seventh but in the eighth walked the bases loaded, the third intentionally.
“You can’t win walking eight people on a big field like this. There’s no excuse for that,” Bianco said. “You can’t pitch like that.”
