Auburn’s penchant for the longball has usually been enough to mask the Tigers’ inability to manufacture runs within the confines of Plainsman Park.

But after two straight games of effective Florida pitching, the slugger-heavy Tigers hit the midpoint of the conference schedule feeling a bit exposed.

With the winds blowing in and Florida’s Anthony DeSclafini working a generous strike zone, Auburn’s bats were largely muted in a 5-1 loss Easter Sunday before 1,850 fans.

The Tigers, who are just 13 home runs shy of breaking the program record, went homerless for the second consecutive game against the Gators, holders of the second-best ERA in the SEC. It marks the first back-to-back games Auburn has gone without a home run since early April 2008.

“We can’t hit home runs all the time,” second baseman Justin Hargett said. “We didn’t show bunt one time today and sometimes we have to go to the small game to get things going because we’re not always going to be so hot.”

Auburn’s up-and-down play has left it 7-8 in conference games with 15 more to play. The Tigers, who haven’t made the SEC tournament since 2003, were 6-9 at this point last season.

“We need to take the 15 that we’ve played, find the positives and negatives, learn from that, and then go into these next 15,” AU head coach John Pawlowski said. “It’s not going to be any easier.”

Ahead for the Tigers are consecutive road series against South Carolina and perennial SEC power LSU before they return home for a three-game set with Ole Miss. The Tigers have just one series (at Kentucky) remaining against a team outside the current top eight.

The Tigers would be relying on a tiebreaker to make the SEC Tournament if it started today.

“I think we stand pretty good, actually,” Hargett said. “We’ve got a lot to learn from the first 15 games.”

Sunday’s game served as a prime example of what needs to be fixed if the Tigers hope to end their five-year drought from tournament play.

Starting pitcher Taylor Thompson was wild from the start and lasted just 3 1/3 innings, allowing three runs on three hits. The sophomore righthander walked a career-high six batters, throwing just two more strikes than balls, and flirted with danger throughout his brief appearance.

If it weren’t for a spectacular diving catch from rightfielder Ben Jones to end the fourth inning, Auburn would have been even further behind in a game that was not as close as the score made it appear.

Auburn’s seven hits made for all seven of the baserunners it mustered Sunday, as DeSclafini and Alex Panteliodis did not register a single walk. Thompson, Bradley Hendrix and Austin Hubbard countered with a season-high 11.

“(The Gators) pitch extremely well,” Pawlowski said. “I thought we didn’t have many quality at-bats. We just couldn’t get anything going, and, consequently, I thought that was the difference.”

Hargett accounted for three of the Tigers’ seven hits, all but one of them being singles. Auburn’s Nos. 2-5 hitters went a combined 0-for-14 at the plate.

Auburn led off every inning with an out.

“We didn’t have an opportunity to build many innings,” Pawlowski said. “You build innings by maybe getting one of the first two guys on base and coming up with a couple hits here and there.”

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