The final regular season series of the season was an opportunity for Auburn baseball to play its way into a favorable Southeastern Conference tournament path and potentially more.

Instead, the Tigers’ postseason path is a little murkier, losing a shot at the double bye in the SEC tournament and likely sitting right near the cutline for a top eight seed in the NCAA tournament.

Ole Miss took the series from Auburn, winning games one and two. The Rebels did so by scoring 32 combined runs over the weekend, the most Auburn has given up in a series this season.

Here are three takeaways from the series loss to Ole Miss:

Poor pitching weekend

Auburn ace Sam Dutton has been one of the shining stars during the Tigers 2025 campaign. He came into the Ole Miss series with a 2.86 earned run average and had been Auburn’s Game 1 starter for the majority of the season.

Against the Rebels, it was the second consecutive weekend in which he underachieved by his 2025 standards. Dutton started Game 2 and gave up a season-high seven earned runs, surpassing the season high of five earned runs he allowed last weekend against South Carolina.

His poor start through three innings led to Ole Miss putting 15 runs on the Tigers Friday night, a rare instance in which Auburn scored double-digit runs, but lost.

Mediocre is probably a better word to describe Auburn’s pitching in Game 1. The Tigers gave up nine runs, but only five were earned as four of Ole Miss’ runs in the seventh inning were unearned.

Thursday night starter Cam Tilly gave up four runs on four hits in five innings of work, striking out five and walking one.

Auburn allowed another eight runs in Game 3, but Ryan Hetzler‘s performance was a bright spot for the staff. He pitched five innings out of the bullpen allowing just one run to set up the comeback win, as Auburn scored 10 unanswered runs to win the game 13-8.

The offense did its part

While Auburn’s pitching staff struggled, the hitters did their part to keep the series competitive and take Game 3.

The Tigers’ bats had been hot the last few weekends, and that continued after they were shut down by Ole Miss ace Hunter Elliot in Game 1.

Auburn found itself trailing 10-2 going into the sixth inning of Game 2, but the Tigers scored nine runs over the final four innings to keep the game competitive. Home runs from Eric Snow, Cooper McMurray and Ike Irish helped lead the charge.

Irish was especially impressive throughout the series, going 6-for-14 from the plate with three home runs and four RBI. He leads the team in both home runs (16) and batting average (.354), and 12 of his 16 home runs have come on the road.

In Game 3, the offense again heated up late in the game, turning a five-run deficit into a five run lead by the time the game ended. It came from a balanced attack, with six Auburn batters driving in at least one run.

Irish hit another home run in that game, but the onslaught came in a five-run sixth inning that featured contributions from Eric Guevara, McMurray and Lucas Steele.

Postseason outlook changes

Going into the weekend, Auburn had a real chance at not just a double bye in the SEC tournament, but a top eight seed in the NCAA tournament which would give the Tigers homefield advantage in the regional and super regional rounds.

Two losses later, and one of those things is officially out of the picture, and the other is very much up in the air. The series loss puts Auburn at 17-13 in SEC play to end the regular season, meaning it will be No. 6 seed in the SEC tournament.

Earning a top eight seed isn’t impossible, but it just became a lot less likely. It’s hard to predict how exactly the committee will judge Auburn, but it could take a big win or two in Hoover to get back in position for a top eight seed.

Auburn’s status as a region host is still safe, but making a run to the College World Series becomes much easier when the path runs entirely through your home stadium.

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports forAL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at[email protected]m