04/02 at 10:23 PM

Auburn will have one more chance to beat the No. 1 team in the nation today.

Saturday, it looked possible for the Tigers to steal one against top-ranked Vanderbilt, but bullpen woes again bit Auburn in an 11-2 loss at Plainsman Park.

The Tigers (15-12, 2-6 SEC) and the Commodores (25-3, 6-2) were tied at 2-2 when Auburn starter Jon Luke Jacobs left the game with one out in the sixth inning.

The right-hander, now 1-2 on the mound, pitched a solid 5 1/3 innings, giving up just five hits to go with four strikeouts and no walks.

However, the Tigers cycled through four relief pitchers over the next 3 2/3 frames, giving up nine runs and losing the second consecutive game of the series in front of an announced crowd of 3,663.

“We talk about trying to make it a short game,” Auburn head coach John Pawlowski said. “My goodness, you look at it, we’re right there. Couple plays, couple swings and it’s a different ballgame.”

Vanderbilt did a bulk of its damage off of junior right-hander Zach Blatt, who started the eighth inning with the Commodores up 3-2.

Blatt, an Opelika High graduate, was pulled just two outs later after giving up three runs on three hits and the bases loaded.

Vanderbilt plated all three of those runs – plus two more – before the end of the inning to take an 11-2 lead, meaning Blatt was responsible for six earned runs in that inning. He also walked two and hit another batter with a pitch.

Vanderbilt scored all eight runs in the eighth – the final two off of Slade Smith – with two outs.

Grayson Garvin earned his fifth win of the season on the mound for the Commodores.

“We made a couple mistakes and they certainly made us pay for it,” Pawlowski said. “Against good teams, you just can’t do that. Every mistake we made, they capitalized on.”

The late-inning swoon turned what was mostly a close game into a blowout, which isn’t anything new to the Tigers.

In the last four conference games, Auburn’s been outscored 42-16. In the last five SEC games, Auburn’s given up 35 runs with two outs.

“You just have to find a way to cut that inning off,” the head coach said of Saturday night’s eighth. “We weren’t able to do that tonight.”

Vanderbilt took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning when Aaron Westlake hit a solo home run to center. However, that was the only hit Jacobs would give up over the first three innings, as he retired seven in a row at one point.

Zach Alvord tied the game up for the Tigers with a solo shot of his own off the scoreboard in left-centerfield in the third. Then the Tigers took the lead, 2-1, in the fourth when Creede Simpson scored on an error.

Alvord finished the game 2-for-2 with an RBI and run scored, while catcher Tony Caldwell was 2-for-3.

The Commodores tied it up in the sixth when Anthony Gomez drove in Tony Kemp with an RBI double to right-center.

Jacobs’ day was over at that point, as the Tigers turned to its relievers to keep them in the game, tied 2-2.

That didn’t happen.

“We’re just going to have to keep trying different guys (out of the bullpen),” Pawlowski said. “We’ve pitched well in spots, and other times we haven’t. It’s been inconsistent.

“We just got to find a way to get some guys to step up. Certainly, we’re going to need those guys here soon to really turn the corner for us.”

Kemp and Gomez both had two hits and two RBI for the Commodores, while Mike Yastrzemski and Sam Lind drove in two runs on one hit.

Auburn will host Vanderbilt for the final game of the series at 1 p.m. today.

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