When the Auburn baseball season began, left-hander Grant Dayton wasn’t a part of the Tigers’ starting rotation.

As the season enters the homestretch, Dayton hasn’t just moved into the rotation. He’s established himself as AU’s ace.

Dayton’s start Friday against Mississippi State was just the latest in his outstanding run. The redshirt freshman dominated the Bulldogs’ hitters for seven innings, leading Auburn to an 11-4 win.

“I felt great,” Dayton said. “The fastball was working, and that’s about it. We pitched a lot with the fastball tonight.”

Dayton finished with 12 strikeouts in seven innings and allowed just one earned run. It’s the most strikeouts for an Auburn pitcher since Eric Brandon struck out 12 in a perfect game in 2002.

Dayton has won three consecutive Southeastern Conference starts and is single-handedly keeping Auburn’s SEC Tournament hopes alive.

AU (25-22, 9-13 SEC) is 3-9 over its last 12 games. The Tigers’ only victories in that span have been in Dayton’s SEC starts.

Not bad for a player who started the season as a lefty middle reliever.

Head coach Tom Slater’s original plan called for Dayton to serve as a middle-inning bridge between Auburn’s starters and ace relievers Bryan Woodall and Evan Crawford.

But the plan changed when Dayton entered the SEC schedule with a miniscule 0.64 ERA. Slater installed him as Auburn’s No. 1 starter before the Tigers’ SEC opener at Florida.

Since then, Dayton is 6-2 in SEC play. He’s the first Auburn pitcher with six SEC wins since Hayden Gliemmo in 1998.

“When he started throwing so well in that (relief) role, it was just, ‘Hey, let’s try to get him in here,’” Slater said.

Dayton hasn’t shown any signs of feeling pressure. But he says he and his teammates know what’s at stake in Auburn’s three remaining SEC series. After Friday’s victory, the Tigers likely need to win five of their remaining eight games to qualify for the SEC Tournament.

“The pressure was there (Friday),” Dayton said. “And then we started scoring runs, so we all could relax a little bit.”

Friday, Auburn’s offense helped take the pressure off Dayton on Friday with 11 runs, the most the Tigers have scored since an April 6 win at Arkansas.

AU broke open a 1-1 game in the fourth inning. After Matt Hall gave the Tigers a 2-1 lead with a sacrifice fly, Justin Hargett followed with an RBI single.

The next batter, catcher Ryan Jenkins, hammered the first pitch from MSU starter Chad Crosswhite (2-4) over the 30-foot fence in left field. The two-run homer put Auburn ahead 5-1.

Not that Jenkins had time to admire his handiwork.

“The way the wind was blowing in batting practice, I didn’t know if it would get out or not,” he said. “I was busting it the whole way.”

Auburn added two runs in the fifth inning and scored another in the sixth. Matt Hall scored on a wild pitch in the eighth; Mike Bianucci hit a two-run homer two batters later.

Dayton, who threw 117 pitches, allowed a three-run home run in the seventh, his final inning. All three runs were unearned.

The series continues at 6 p.m. today. Auburn right-hander Taylor Thompson (2-4, 6.65 ERA) will face MSU right-hander Ricky Bowen (2-5, 7.38).