When his errant throw translated into a de facto three-run home run for Vanderbilt, Tony Caldwell appeared in line to be Friday’s goat.

Auburn’s bullpen quickly came to the catcher’s relief, as it stepped in and ensured that those three runs would just be the start of the Commodores’ onslaught.

Caldwell’s wayward throw in the sixth inning Friday allowed Vanderbilt to tie what once was a three-run deficit and served as the top lowlight in four innings of bad Auburn baseball.

Vanderbilt won 12-3 victory to send Auburn to its fourth consecutive SEC loss before a constantly dwindling 1,949 fans at Plainsman Park.

“We have to learn to play baseball better,” coach John Pawlowski said. “Right now, we’re just not playing great baseball and doing little things.”

The blooper-reel scene unfolded after Vanderbilt’s Curt Casali and Aaron Westlake rapped back-to-back singles with one out and the Commodores freshly down 3-0. Andrew Giobbi followed with a sharp single to left field, and that’s when the series of errors commenced.

Brian Fletcher’s attempt to nab Casali at the plate sailed the cutoff man and pulled Caldwell well off the plate and up the third-base line. Casali scored standing.

The action continued on the base paths, as Giobbi was thinking greedily and rounded first to second.

Westlake, though, pulled up conservatively and headed back to second after a big turn.

Both scored when Caldwell’s throw sailed well above a leaping Justin Hargett at second and past centerfielder Trent Mummey, whose momentum pulled him away from the ball.

“Good teams are going to take advantage of guys’ mistakes,” Pawlowski said. “We made a mistake today and next thing you know, they put some good swings on it and every ball seems to find a hole out there and they score some runs.”

Of course, the game was still tied at that point. Caldwell had little to do with yet another Auburn bullpen meltdown, which turned a one-run game into an almost instant rout.

Rus Harper surrendered a solo home run to Steven Liddle two pitches into his appearance in the seventh inning. Two more runs followed, as Zach Blatt relieved and didn’t have much more luck.

Blatt allowed three more runs in the eighth to push an Auburn opponent into double digits for the fifth time this season. Chris O’Neil allowed two more in the ninth.

The Tigers allowed a season-high 22 hits on the night — more than half of what Vanderbilt amassed in its first six SEC games. Seventeen of the Commodores’ hits came in the final four innings.

Vanderbilt’s batting average in conference games jumped from .226 to .288.

“We’re going to keep running guys out there and, hopefully, somebody is going to step up for us and fill some of those roles,” Pawlowski said. “We’ve got to be able to get a little later in the ballgame and we certainly didn’t do that today.”

Auburn, meanwhile, had just five hits, and it only needed two in the fifth inning to tack on three runs against Vanderbilt lefthander Mike Minor.

A bases-loaded single from Hargett, catcher’s interference with Mummey at the plate and a Joseph Sanders sacrifice fly accounted for the only damage Auburn did on Minor, who went seven innings and struck out 11.

Grant Dayton was the tough-luck loser for Auburn, allowing four runs in six innings to pick up his first back-to-back losses in consecutive decisions during his Auburn career.

“You put the uniform on and you want to have an opportunity to play and win,” Pawlowski said. “But when you lose and lose in the fashion we lost, it’s disappointing.”

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