Davis Daniel surrendered seven earned runs over 3.1 innings of work against Arkansas on Thursday night.

HOOVER, Ala. — It didn’t take long for Auburn’s SEC Tournament matchup against Arkansas to turn into the Chad Spanberger show.

The Razorbacks’ slugging first baseman produced a staggering stat line Thursday evening that rewrote the SEC record books and nearly singlehandedly bounced the Tigers from the conference tournament.

Spanberger launched three home runs in his first three at-bats — a solo shot and a two-run blast followed by a grand slam — and was the centerpiece of an offensive onslaught that gave Arkansas a resounding 12-0 victory over Auburn in a seven-inning game shortened by run rule.

“We dug in such a deep, deep hole,” Auburn head coach Butch Thompson said. “That was about as complete a ballgame as I’ve seen against us in our time here. I just thought it was too big a hole. I thought the third home run, the grand slam, was kind of the dagger, and I didn’t see us respond much to that.”

While Auburn’s pitching staff struggled to find an answer for Spanberger’s power, the Tigers’ offense was similarly baffled by the Arkansas (40-16) hurlers.

Auburn (35-24) had its fair share of baserunners thanks to seven walks and a hit batter, but failed to record a hit. It was the first time in program history the Tigers were no-hit and the third time they were shutout this season. It was also the first no-hitter in the 40-year history of the SEC Tournament, which has included 510 games.

“They did a great job attacking with their fastball,” Auburn right fielder Daniel Robert said of the Arkansas pitchers. “I thought we hit some balls hard. … We took our walks, but when runners got in scoring position, they kind of beared down more and attacked with their fastball. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get one to fall in.”

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Spanberger, who became the first player in SEC Tournament history to hit three home runs in one game, did all his damage early in the game, launching homers over the right-field wall in the first and third innings and the right-center field wall in the fourth inning.

Two of his blasts came at the expense of Auburn starter Davis Daniel, who served up the first home run just seven pitches into his outing. The freshman right-hander lasted just 3.1 innings and surrendered seven earned runs, which equaled his career-high. Spanberger, who set another SEC Tournament record with seven RBIs, accounted for six of those runs.

“’It’s not what you throw but where you throw it,’ I think was probably the line of the day looking back,” Thompson said.

Thompson yanked Daniel in the fourth before he could face Spanberger for a third time, but reliever Andrew Mitchell had no better luck than his predecessor.

After striking out Eric Cole, Mitchell served up a hanging breaking ball. Spanberger, who entered play with 14 home runs on the year, didn’t miss it, smashing a two-out grand slam that opened the Arkansas lead to 8-0.

“When that guy pitched to me at Auburn, he flipped me like seven curveballs, so I was kind of sitting on curveball,” Spanberger said. “He kind of hung one, and I hit it pretty well.”

The Tigers refused to give Spanberger a chance in his fourth plate appearance, intentionally walking him with first base open. They finally retired him in his fifth and final plate appearance with a groundout to short.

With its SEC Tournament run over after three games, Auburn now awaits its NCAA Tournament fate, which will be announced on Monday. The Tigers are expected to be either a No. 2 or No. 3 seed in the regional.

“Hopefully, our resume speaks for itself and we can get in there,” Robert said. “There’s nothing we can do now but work as hard as we can. We don’t want to look back and regret anything. We’re going to use this game and this whole tournament to better our team and learn how to play in this type of atmosphere for down the road.”

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