Throughout his team’s disappointing finish to the Southeastern Conference schedule, Auburn baseball coach Tom Slater has maintained that his players aren’t distracted by the questions around his future.
Slater’s job security may not have been on the minds of Auburn’s players in Friday’s 15-6 loss to LSU. But something clearly was, as the Tigers fumbled their way to their most unfocused performance of the season.
Name a baseball mistake, and Auburn (28-27, 11-18 SEC) made it Friday night. The Tigers’ outfielders dropped fly balls. Infielders booted grounders. Pitchers missed target after target.
“Sometimes things snowball, and it certainly did tonight,” Slater said. “We’ve got to do a better job. Dropping popups, missing routine ground balls, that’s not us.
“It hasn’t been us all year, but it certainly was us tonight. It was just a poor, poor job.”
LSU (38-16-1, 17-11-1 SEC) took advantage of almost every Auburn mistake to cruise to an easy win. The victory — LSU’s 14th in a row — clinched the Western Division title for the Bayou Bengals and moved them into second place in the SEC standings.
Auburn, meanwhile, has lost 15 of its last 21 games. But none of the losses have featured as many mistakes as Friday’s, especially on defense.
“Obviously, very uncharacteristic defense for us tonight,” Slater said. “We made five errors, all of them routine: We missed ground balls, dropped two popups.
“It was a poor night for us across the board.”
Auburn’s offense started strong, scoring five runs off LSU starter Blake Martin, who lasted just two innings. AU led, 5-2, after two innings, thanks to two home runs by outfielder Brian Fletcher. Fletcher had a two-run homer in the first inning and a three-run shot in the second, both off Martin.
But the Tigers had no answer for LSU reliever Ryan Byrd (2-1), who threw six scoreless innings in relief, allowing just two hits.
“I thought after a nice approach early to their starter, it was a very poor job by us making adjustments at the plate to Byrd and what he was doing,” Slater said. “Not a good night for us.”
Auburn starter Taylor Thompson (3-6) left in the fourth inning after allowing six runs. His replacement, Evan Crawford, allowed five runs — three earned — while mop-up man Sean Ray allowed four unearned runs.
“We did not pitch well at all,” Slater said.
LSU poured on the runs in the middle innings, scoring four in the fourth, two in the fifth, three in the seventh and four in the eighth.
The series concludes today at 2 p.m. Auburn right-hander Luke Greinke (4-4, 4.47 ERA) will start for Auburn. LSU right-hander Anthony Ranaudo (0-0, 0.00 ERA) will make his first career start for the Bayou Bengals.
cmickle@oanow.com | 737-2561
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