HOOVER — To open the conference season, Cory Luckie saw the bats behind him light up Georgia for 20 runs.

In another start, the offense backed him with a six-run first inning. And two of his other wins came when the Auburn offense battered the opposition for double digits.

He and Auburn would have settled for a quarter of that support Wednesday against Alabama to open the SEC Tournament.

The No. 13 Tigers, tops in most SEC hitting categories, scrapped together a season-low five hits and failed to clear three runs for just the third time this season against Alabama’s red-hot Jimmy Nelson. Nelson’s third consecutive complete game and timely Crimson Tide hitting made for
a nasty combination in Auburn’s 7-1 loss before at a jam-packed Regions Park.

Auburn’s Grant Dayton will hope to have better luck when he takes the mound against South Carolina at 9:30 a.m. in today’s elimination game.
The Gamecocks will throw ace Blake Cooper, who picked up one of his 10 wins with a seven-inning, four-run effort against Auburn earlier in the season.

“You can’t expect our guys to score 10 runs every game,” Luckie said. “We are going to have some bad games.”

Auburn’s first bad game in a while just came at the worst possible time and, to fans, against the worst possible team.

In its manic finish to the conference season, when it won 12 of its final 15 games en route to the SEC West crown, Auburn averaged a staggering 9.93 runs per game.

Nelson’s presence, though, relegated Auburn’s bats to anemic levels unseen since a 2-0 shutout against South Carolina in March.

“We never really had a chance to get anything going,” coach John Pawlowski said.

Auburn put the leadoff hitter on base just once, when Dan Gamache sent a double to center field in the third inning.

Even getting Gamache home for Auburn’s only run required two outs, as Justin Hargett bunted him to third and Justin Fradejas did the same with a safety squeeze to stake Luckie to a 1-0 lead.

“I thought his stuff was really good, so I thought it was going to be a low-scoring game, one of those games where we’ve got to try to manufacture some runs,” Pawlowski said. “I thought we could at least get some momentum. Against a guy who was throwing the ball really well, you’ve got to try some different things.”

The Tigers were punchless thereafter, going hitless from the fourth-sixth innings and putting just one runner in scoring position the rest of the game.

“They are a great team and you have to tip your hat to them,” first baseman Hunter Morris said. “Even when we had some great swings, they played good defense and came up with some great plays.“

Nelson needed just 97 pitches to pick up his third consecutive complete game. Using a heavy dose of fastballs and sliders while mixing in the occasional changeup, Nelson struck out six and didn’t register a walk.

Over his past three starts, all of which resulted in pivotal wins for Alabama, Nelson has allowed just five runs on 17 hits with 24 strikeouts and four walks.

“That’s a guy with really good stuff who is really confident right now,” Alabama coach Mitch Gaspard said.

Alabama’s bats gained confidence in step with Nelson. The Crimson Tide picked up what turned out to be the game-winning runs in the fourth inning on Andrew Miller’s two-out, two-run single before opening the game up against Auburn’s bullpen with five runs over the final three innings.

Luckie’s 6 2/3-inning, three-run effort was superior to a number of his starts this season that ended with victories.

The safety net just wasn’t there for him Wednesday.

“Cory Luckie did a great job for us, got us into the seventh inning,” Pawlowski said. “He gave our team a chance. Unfortunately, we couldn’t put anything together.”

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