The weekend started out strong for Auburn baseball as it won Game 1 of its three-game series with the fourth-ranked Tennessee Volunteers Friday night.

While the Vols plated three runs in the opening frame, the Tigers fired back with a five-run inning of their own in the home half of the first inning. From that point on, Auburn never trailed en route to stealing a 9-5 series-opening win.

But then the wheels fell off for Auburn as Tennessee won the next to games — and the series — in lopsided fashion.

And the Tigers’ pitching struggles were to blame as Auburn’s arms gave up a combined 31 runs to Tennessee on Saturday and Sunday.

Auburn lost Saturday’s game 12-2, followed by dropping Sunday’s rubber match 19-5.

“We had a chance to win the series the last two days and their strength absolutely outshined our strength,” Auburn head coach Butch Thompson said. “They were relentless. This first 12 games, the pitching has had a tough time. Really tougher than I can remember in the long time, but this league will do that to you. I’m disappointed from the standpoint of having the chance to win the series the last two days.”

Thompson made an effort to try something different on the mound against the Vols.

Instead of the usual Friday-Saturday-Sunday starting rotation of Chase Allsup, Joseph Gonzalez and Conner McBride, Thompson gave Friday’s starting nod to sophomore Dylan Watts.

Watts went on to be chased off the mound after just 1.1 innings of action, followed by Carson Myers and John Armstrong steadying the ship and combining for 7.2 scoreless innings to help Auburn win the first game of the series.

On Saturday and Sunday, the trend of Auburn’s starters posting abbreviated outings continued as McBride and Will Cannon combined for just three full innings of work, 11 earned runs, seven hits and four walks.

However, unlike on Friday, the Tigers didn’t have the relief to keep the fourth-ranked Vols at bay in the final two games of the series.

And for that, Thompson took responsibility and apologized to the Auburn fanbase.

“I’m just sitting here thinking, like, it’s ultimately my responsibility. We have six weeks of SEC play, so I just urge everybody to understand it’s my responsibility to have a non-competitive pitching staff in this amazing league,” Thompson said.

“I apologize to our fans, people that love our program, our stakeholders who support our program. I commit to forcing our guys and our staff to figure out some solutions to get better, meet the expectations. Because we’ve built someone amazing together, and now these expectations must be lived up to. We’ve done this thing together. Just keep it at my feet and allow us to continue to try to figure some things out with these guys, with this staff, with these players. And I think it starts immediately with the pitching staff.”

Auburn, which sits at the bottom of the barrel in the SEC West with a 2-10 conference record, has six SEC series still on the agenda this spring.

After a midweek tilt against Alabama State on Tuesday night at 6, the Tigers will return to Plainsman Park for a Thursday-Friday-Saturday series against No. 8 Kentucky.