No. 16 Auburn Completes Regular Season With Sweep At No. 17 Ole Miss

[AUSportTalk 4]

No. 16 Auburn started its Southeastern Conference season

with a three-game sweep at Georgia and ended it the same fashion in

Oxford, Miss., on Saturday afternoon, besting the host No. 17 Ole Miss

Rebels, 11-1, to complete the team’s run to the SEC West Division title

with a 39-17 overall record and a school record 20-10 SEC mark.

“There is a lot of confidence in this club right now. We continue to

talk about the performance on the mound. You throw Grant Dayton out

there and Michael Hurst and they issued no walks. We made them put it in

play and they did an outstanding job,” Auburn Head Coach John Pawlowski

said.

Already locked into the number two seed in next week’s conference

tournament by virtue of Friday night’s 18-4 division-clinching win,

Auburn completed its first sweep of Ole Miss (36-20, 16-14 SEC) since

1988 and its first in Oxford since 1976. It marked the first time since

2006 that anyone had swept Ole Miss in conference play and the first

time that anyone did it at Oxford-University Stadium since 2003.

Joining Auburn and sixth-seeded Ole Miss in its half of the bracket will

be third-seeded South Carolina (43-13, 21-9 SEC) and seventh-seeded

Alabama (34-21, 15-15 SEC). Auburn and Alabama will play in the first

game of the tournament on Wednesday at 9:30am CT at Regions Park in

Hoover, Ala. The game will be televised live in SportsSouth.

Tickets for the SEC Tournament are available online at

www.auburntigers.com and www.secsports.com.

Most of the damage on Saturday was done in the third inning as Auburn

scored seven times on seven hits, a walk and an error to go up 9-1 after

two-and-a-half innings.

With Auburn’s bats showing why the team has the best batting average in

the SEC, Dayton continued his dominance in series finales, holding Ole

Miss to just three hits over the first five innings before giving way to

Michael Hurst to start the sixth. Having won his last three starts,

Dayton improved to 8-2 on the year and won his seventh in league play,

tying for the league lead in SEC wins. The only blemish on his stat line

on Sunday came on Snyder’s second-inning home run as he struck out

three, didn’t walk any and worked around two fourth-inning singles as

Auburn finished the year 9-1 in SEC series finales.

“I knew today was going to be a challenge. Ole Miss has good hitters. It

always helps when we jump on their pitching early and we were able to.

That makes for a comfortable day on the mound,” Dayton said. “Our

pitching staff has made great strides, and right now we can carry that

to the post season, which is new for us. It’s great to end like this;

pitching well and hitting well. We have a lot of momentum going into the

post season.”

Already up 2-1 after Trent Mummey (3-for-6, 2 2B, 4 RBI) and Matt Snyder

(3-for-3, 2B, HR), traded home runs, with Mummey’s scoring two in the

first, Auburn battered Ole Miss starter David Goforth for three runs in

the top of the third before he left with men on first and third, both of

which would come around to score. Goforth would be charged with seven

runs (five earned) in 2 1/3 innings to fall to 1-5 on the season.

“We came out yesterday and we won the West and we wanted to put

ourselves in the best possible position to host a regional and I think

we did that today with the sweep over Ole Miss,” Mummey said.

Brian Fletcher (1-for-4, R) started the third with a double and then

singles by Hunter Morris (2-for-5) and Kevin Patterson (1-for-6)

followed, with Patterson’s scoring Fletcher. A sac bunt by Casey McElroy

(0-for-2) put both runners in scoring position for Tony Caldwell, who

squeezed home Morris to put Auburn up 4-1. An errant pickoff attempt of

Caldwell (2-for-4) at first allowed Patterson to score and Caldwell to

get to second for Dan Gamache (1-for-4), whoput runners on the corners and end Goforth’s afternoon.

Auburn greeted reliever Rory McKean with a second successful squeeze

play and then was aided by a fielding error at first that allowed Justin

Fradejas (3-for-5, 3 R, 2 SB) to reach safely. Mummey followed with a

two-run double and scored on Morris’ single to cap the scoring on the

inning.

“Offensively we put up a big inning, a seven-run inning. Sometimes we

overlook the little things we do offensively. We had two successful

squeezes. We continue to find ways to do things,” Pawlowski said.

Hurst finished the game by throwing a season-high four innings, allowing

a sixth-inning double but otherwise keeping the Ole Miss hitters off

base, sitting them down in order in the seventh, eighth and ninth to

pick up his second save of the season.

“It’s really exciting. For us coming in here and getting a sweep is

really big for the team and it’s a big confidence builder going into the

SEC Tournament,” Hurst said. “I just came in and tried to do the best I

can. I threw strikes and let the defense work behind me and they did a

great job today.”

Auburn’s final two runs came in the top of the ninth as Fradejas

singled, Mummey doubled and both scored when Ole Miss first baseman Matt

Snyder couldn’t handle a Morris liner.

The last time Auburn had three league sweeps in SEC play was in 2001

when it also completed three sweeps in the season, though all three of

those sweeps came at home while only one of Auburn’s sweeps this season

took place at Plainsman Park. The last time Auburn closed out a SEC

season with a sweep was in 1999 while the last time it happened on the

road was in 1988.