Another Friday night, another gem of a start for Casey Mize. This time, the Auburn ace went all the way.

Again.

Mize hurled a complete game -- his second of the season and fourth of his career -- to navigate No. 23 Auburn to a 2-1 series-opening win against Mississippi State at Plainsman Park, snapping a four-game losing streak for the Tigers and a five-game skid in SEC play.

"Special pitcher," Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. "He keeps redefining that so many times for us when his team needed him the most."

Mize, who has been arguably the best pitcher in the country this season, made another compelling case for why he should be the first player selected in this summer's MLB First-Year Player Draft.

The junior right-hander allowed just one runs on five hits, struck out nine and didn't issue a walk as he improved to 7-1 on the season and lowered his ERA to 2.00.

Mize was dominant throughout his start for Auburn (24-11, 5-8 SEC). He allowed a leadoff single in the first but worked through the inning with the help of his defense, as Jay Estes threw out Jake Mangum at home to end the frame.

Mize then retired the next eight batters he faced before Hunter Stovall reached on a two-out single in the fourth. Mize quickly induced a fly ball to end that inning. In the fifth, Mississippi State's Jordan Westburg hit a leadoff double against Mize, who responded by retiring the next three batters, including two by way of strikeout.

The lone run the Bulldogs (18-17, 4-9) scored came in the sixth, when Mangum struck out to lead off the inning but reached first thanks to a wild pitch on the third strike. Two batters later, Tanner Poole tripled just past the outstretched glove of Estes in center field, scoring Mangum and cutting Auburn's lead in half after the Tigers plated a run each in the second and third innings thanks to an RBI sac fly by Brendan Venter and an RBI single by Will Holland.

With the tying run 90 feet away, Mize wasn't fazed. The preseason All-American induced back-to-back grounders back to the mound, fielding his position with precision to get out of the jam. After snagging the second bouncer back to the mound, Mize pumped his fist before tossing the ball over to first to end the inning.

"You've got to have the mindset, 'I'm going to get out of this,' just being very confident in your ability to get out of that is kind of what I was thinking," Mize said. "Obviously a little nerve racking, the tying run is 90 feet away so you really have to bear down and have your best stuff and I got a couple of weak ground balls. I'm just glad they didn't hit anything hard or do anything with it."

Thompson said he could sense a shift in the game from that moment on as Mize took the "sting" out of the Bulldogs' bats for the remainder of the night.

After Poole's sixth-inning triple, Mize retired the final 11 batters he faced -- including just a four-pitch eighth inning that kept his pitch-count at 97 heading into the ninth.

Mize, who also had a six-pitch frame in the second, needed just 23 pitches to get through the final three innings against a Mississippi State lineup that was aggressive - -though not very successful -- in its approach against Mize, who has grown accustom to that this season.

"I have not seen him sped up this year and I hope as he continues into the second half of the season that serves him well," Thompson said. "Just a complete, complete ballgame. The efficiency and control, I think even though we're not playing great baseball, it just permeates throughout the entire team how he handles himself.

"It just puts everybody at comfort like it's going to be OK."

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