Three games against top-ranked Vanderbilt, three similar road maps to the finish line and three identical results have Auburn all alone in the SEC West basement a third of the way into the conference season.

The Tigers went into the seventh inning tied with the Commodores in the series finale Sunday, only to give up four in the frame on the way to a 6-2 loss.

Kind of like how Vanderbilt plated eight in the eighth to turn a 1-run lead into an 11-2 win Saturday night.

And like how the Commodores pushed across seven in the sixth and seventh to turn a 1-run lead into an 11-6 win Friday.

Sunday’s win marked the first time Vanderbilt (26-3, 7-2 SEC) had ever swept Auburn (15-13, 2-7) at home, and finished off the first back-to-back SEC series sweeps of the Tigers since Florida and Georgia did it in March 2007.

Mississippi State outscored Auburn, 27-14, last weekend. Vanderbilt beat the Tigers by a 28-10 margin this time around.

“Unfortunately, we have not gotten off to the start that we certainly had hoped for,” Tigers coach John Pawlowski said. “But when you play good teams — Vanderbilt is a very good team — when you have opportunities, you have got to seize those opportunities.

“We didn’t this weekend and now we’ve got to find a way to regroup.”

Auburn and starter Derek Varnadore were living dangerously over the first half of the game, as the Commodores put 12 runners on base in the first five innings but only scored two of them on a fielding error in the first.

The Tigers kept in contact with a two-run Wes Gilmer single to tie the game in the fifth and loaded the bases on singles by Tony Caldwell, Dan Gamache and Gilmer with one out in the sixth.

But Vanderbilt reliever Will Clinard — who got his first win of the season — coaxed a strikeout and flyout, and the Commodores left the inning unscathed.

“We got in that situation where we could have given up a lot of runs early, but we didn’t and kept the game close,” Pawlowski said. “And they certainly capitalized in that one big inning.”

Vanderbilt’s “big inning” began with a one-out single by Curt Casali, followed by a Sam Lind hit batsman on a check swing and a single by Riley Reynolds on a liner that glanced off Tiger reliever Ethan Wallen’s wrist.

Wallen recovered the ball and tried to throw Reynolds out but was just late, loading the bases with one out.

From there, Conrad Gregor rapped an RBI single, Lind scored on a wild pitch, Anthony Gomez lofted a sacrifice fly, and Aaron Westlake capped off the four-run frame with an RBI single.

Auburn didn’t threaten in its final nine outs.

“The best thing for us to do is just flush it and get our minds right,” said infielder Casey McElroy, who played second base, shortstop and third base over the course of the series. “We’re just not playing well right now. We’ve got to get everything together.”

McElroy wasn’t the only Tiger hopping from position-to-position, as Pawlowski used a different lineup for each game — along with two pitchers who were making their first SEC starts of the year — trying to find a spark.

“I’m not going to sit still. We’re going to try to adjust things,” Pawlowski said. “We’re going to maneuver guys around. We changed the rotation. I’m sure that when you go through something like this, we need to keep working, but there will be major changes made.”

Casali was 3-for-4 for Vanderbilt, Tony Kemp was 2-for-4, and Gomez and Reynolds were each 2-for-5.

Gamache went 3-for-4 with a double, Gilmer was 2-for-4, and Wallen was saddled with the loss, as the reigning SEC West champions continued to struggle following up last season.

“We’ve got some guys who need to improve,” Pawlowski said. “We need to look at everything and evaluate everything. We’ll get better. I’m confident in this team and the guys.

“They’re down, but Tuesday we’ll get right back at it and then we’ll hit the road again (against Troy). No easy games left.”
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