LSU takes series

AUBURN | Auburn committed two errors and LSU pounded out 13 hits in a 10-5 win Sunday at Plainsman Park in the rubber game of the series.

The loss drops Auburn to 13-15 overall and 2-7 in the SEC while LSU improves to 18-9 and 4-5.

“I think our kids are still battling hard,” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. “It would be nice for us to find a rhythm. That was a big series for us to try to compete in and we’re trying to put them in better situations because they’re playing so hard for us.”

Jordan Romero’s three-run home run in the seventh over the Green Monster in left broke open a one-run game. Beau Jordan hit a two-run home run in the fifth. Three of LSU’s 10 runs were unearned.

“We feel like we have to score to win and it all goes back to being a little short on the pitching side,” Thompson said.

Auburn scored three in the first but had just one hit over the next four innings before striking for two in the sixth.

Anfernee Grier scored on a passed ball in the first followed by a Jordan Ebert RBI double and a Blake Logan sacrifice fly.

Joshua Palacios led off the sixth with a home run over the right field wall, his fifth of the season, and Cody Nulph drove in another with a bases-loaded walk. But LSU reliever Parker Bugg got out of the jam by retiring Kyler Deese on a groundout and striking out pinch-hitter Jackson Burgreen on three pitches as Auburn left the bases loaded.

“We didn’t score (anymore) and they hit another three-run home run,” Thompson said. “I thought that was the difference in the ballgame.”

Grier finished 3 of 5. Ebert and Logan had two hits apiece for Auburn. The final four in Auburn's batting order were 0 of 13.

Andrew Mitchell (4-1), starting against his former team for the first time, took the loss allowing six runs, four earned, on five hits in 4.0 innings.

“It was about what I expected,” said Thompson of Mitchell, who threw 101 pitches in Tuesday’s win over Alabama. “I thought he was going to go about 50 pitches or so. He left the ball up a little bit, they lose a ball, then he got at the bottom of the strike zone and got a little distance for us.

“I still think at the end of the deal when he came out of the ballgame it was 3-3.”

LSU starter John Valek III (5-1) earned the win allowing five runs, four earned, on six hits in 5.1 innings. Bugg earned the save holding Auburn to two hits over the final 3.2 innings.

Auburn hosts Georgia State Tuesday at 6 p.m. CT on SECN+ and WatchESPN and then returns to conference play Thursday night at Missouri.