Auburn falls in SEC Tourney opener

HOOVER, Ala. (WALA) - The Auburn baseball team could muster just three hits off of the Florida pitching staff as it fell, 6-1, in the opening round of the 2012 Southeastern Conference Tournament at Regions Park. The loss dropped Auburn's record to 30-27 and into the loser's bracket at the tournament. Auburn will face the loser of the Vanderbilt-Georgia game at 4:30pm on Wednesday.

"Florida didn't give us many opportunities to do a lot offensively; Give them a lot of credit on the mound," Auburn Head Coach John Pawlowski said. "We tried to keep this thing close and Jon Luke (Jacobs) did a great job trying to keep this game in check. He pitched extremely well out there."

Neither team could muster much offense through the first five innings as Auburn had just two hits off of Florida starter Jonathan Crawford and Florida had three hits off of Auburn's Jacobs through five full innings.

Florida was able to build a 2-0 lead in the second, however, as Brian Johnson and Daniel Pigott led off the inning with singles and then came around to score on a Justin Shafer RBI single to left. Auburn answered with a run in the third when Bobby Andrews singled, went to second when Zach Alvord reached on a throwing error by Nolan Fontana at short and scored on a Creede Simpson sac fly two batters later to make it 2-1.

Floridaended the pitcher's duel in the sixth when it touched Jacobs for three straight hits with one out as Johnson and Pigott had back-to-back singles before being doubled in by Casey Turgeon, ending Jacobs outing. Turgeon would come around to score on a Shafer RBI single off of Slade Smith for a 5-1 lead.

Crawford (5-2) finished the night striking out a career-high nine, allowing just the unearned run on two hits and four walks.

Jacobs (5-4) was touched for five runs in 5 1/3 innings, allowing six hits and two walks while striking out six.

Florida(41-16) finished the game with 10 hits.

Daniel Koger will get the starting nod for Auburn in Wednesday's elimination game.

Florida6, Auburn 1 (May 22, 2012 at Hoover, AL)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Auburn.............. 001 000 000 - 1 3 0 (30-27)
Florida............. 020 003 10X - 6 10 1 (41-16)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Win-Jonathon Crawford(5-2) Loss-Jon Luke Jacobs(5-4) T-2:28 A-0

-- Auburn media services