Butch Thompson hoped that Davis Daniel's return to the weekend rotation would make for a "great story" for Auburn this weekend against Ole Miss.

Instead, it was more of a familiar tale for the Tigers.

Making his first start since April 14, Daniel gave up five runs in five-plus innings of work, which was too much for No. 18 Auburn to overcome as it dropped its series opener against No. 5 Ole Miss, 5-4, on Thursday night at Swazy Field in Oxford, Miss.

"We played a good baseball game," Thompson said on postgame radio. "We, probably in the last couple of weeks, have played worse and won a ballgame. We played well enough to win--so did Ole Miss. Ole Miss played a really good ballgame. It came down to the 'one more,' a couple of moments here they did enough early and we were not able to rally all the way back."

The five runs allowed, all earned, marked the fifth time in 26 career starts that the sophomore right-hander has given up that many runs. More concerning, however, was that it marked the second straight start that Daniel (3-4, 5.66 ERA) has allowed at least five runs; he gave up six in his last start against Mississippi State last month.

Daniel was perfect through one inning and struck out three of the first four batters he faced to open the game. It didn't take long for things to turn south for Daniel after that.

Following a one-out single in the second, the Rebels (37-13, 14-11 SEC) got on the board with a two-run home run by Will Golsan on a fastball up in the zone that made it 2-0. Ole Miss added another run in the third, when Nick Fortes launched a solo shot to left-center field.

Those home runs were the fourth and fifth allowed this season by Daniel, who gave up multiple home runs for the first time in his last 16 appearances dating back to last season.

Ole Miss got another run across in the fourth on a double by Tyler Keenan. Auburn (35-15, 13-12) got a run back in the top of the sixth on a solo home run by Steven Williams, his ninth of the year, to put the Tigers on the board.

Daniel was lifted in the bottom sixth after giving up a leadoff walk. That runner came around to score on an RBI single by Golsan against Elliott Anderson to make it 5-1 and put a cap on Daniel's outing. The sophomore from Montgomery lasted five-plus innings, giving up five runs on six hits and two walks while striking out five on 77 pitches, 46 of which went for strikes.

"Definitely a couple of home runs, but I just thought he kept competing," Thompson said. "I thought he kept trying to drive the ball in the strike zone and give us a chance. A couple of times after home runs we got a double-play groundball and we were able to get the third out instead of Ole Miss really expanding that thing. We were able to keep them at bay because he stayed competitive for us, even though they got a couple of big hits."

That hole ultimately proved too deep for Auburn to climb out of, though it wasn't for lack of effort.

The Tigers got three runs in the seventh to cut the deficit to one. After Auburn loaded the bases with one out following a walk to Josh Anthony, a run scored on a wild pitch by Houston Roth. Following a strikeout by Will Holland, Auburn scored two more when Williams reached on a throwing error, which allowed Davis and Anthony to both score and make it 5-4.

Auburn nearly tied it in the top of the eighth, when Brendan Venter doubled off the wall in left field, narrowly missing out on his fifth home run in the last four games. The one-out double extended Venter's hitting streak to seven games, but the Tigers failed to drive him in as they finished 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position for the game.

"I thought our at-bats got better and better as the game went on, wound up getting four runs and drawing back within," Thompson said. "... It's the one more hit with a guy in scoring position, it's maybe catching one more ball, you know, it was the one--one more camera angle, it was all the things in play the one more, which you expect in a Game 1 in the Southeastern Conference. Great game."

Auburn will try to even the series on Friday at 6:30 p.m. when ace Casey Mize (9-2, 2.25) takes the mound for the Tigers.

"We'll have to regroup," Thompson said. "Now we can look at it and try to find a positive angle heading into tomorrow, and we got Casey Mize going for you on the mound. You almost got something done here and played a really close, competitive ballgame. Hopefully we come out guns a-blazing with our best guy on the mound tomorrow."

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.