Three weeks into SEC play things no longer look peachy for AU baseball. To fans that sit through miserable inning after inning it may not come to much surprise AU is 1-8 in the conference, but the solution may be more complicated than some think.

The first issue that is absolutely killing Auburn--as it would any team--is errors. Every major starter except for infielder Patrick Savage has recorded at least one error on the season with Dan Glevenyak leading the way with nine and Damek Tomscha right behind him with eight.

When the left side of the infield has a combined 17 errors pitchers are likely to get frustrated. And yet, starting pitching is not a major issue for Auburn.

New Friday night starter Connor Kendrick has a team-best 1.80 ERA and holds a 2-1 record. He has only allowed 22 hits in 30 innings. Michael O’Neal has a 2.28 ERA in seven starts and holds a 5-2 record while opponents have a .228 batting average against him.

Past the game one and two starters, however, things do get a little iffy.

Daniel Koger was moved to the bullpen after seeing his ERA rise to around 4.00 after starting six games. Will Kendall, fresh off of being cleared from Tommy John surgery, replaced the sophomore and most recently combined for a two-hitter against Alabama.

But, that two-hitter also gave Kendall a loss. Auburn was shutout and fell 2-0.

Hitting has become a nightmare for Auburn.

Although Garrett Cooper is batting a solid .333 as Jordan Ebert sits at .312, the rest of the Tigers are scattered in the .200s and the team has struck out a combined 165 times.

When Auburn is able to get runners on, it tends to leave them on. The Tigers have left 230 runners on base while only scoring 148 runs. In the Alabama game last Saturday, Auburn left seven on, four of which recorded hits.

It would be unfair to mention six of the Tigers’ losses in conference play came against No. 2 Vanderbilt and on the road vs. No. 3 LSU.

Nonetheless, the answer to Auburn’s woes is actually fairly simple. The Tigers just need to pitch, field and hit better. Until Auburn is able to do that, it may find a way to actually finish worse than it’s 13th-place tradition, matching the trend of football and men’s basketball.

The Tigers will try and turn things around this weekend against Texas A&M in College Station, Texas.