Auburn advances to National Championship behind third highest score in program history
Suni Lee led the Tigers with an all-around score of 39.6750 and won the individual beam national championship.
Suni Lee led the Tigers with an all-around score of 39.6750 and won the individual beam national championship.
“We found a way to play clean baseball defensively and scored three of the last four innings,” head coach Butch Thompson said.
“That’s a big one today and I couldn’t be more proud of the pitchers stepping up,” said head coach Butch Thompson.
Auburn had their annual inner-squad “A-Day” game today inside Jordan-Hare Stadium. The biggest question going into today was who will get the most playing time at the quarterback position. The new look of the defense was also a big talking point.
Auburn will be back in action this weekend as they host the No. 12 Vanderbilt Commodores at Plainsman Park. The games will be on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
After beating Alabama State, the No. 17 Auburn Tigers softball team (29-6) (7-5 SEC) stayed home in Jane B. Moore Field to take on the No. 7 Florida Gators (30-6) (7-5 SEC) in what was a heavyweight matchup, that ended in a series win for the Florida Gators who just beat the Tigers 2-1.
Auburn will be back in action starting April 12th at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. The Tigers will be one of eight teams competing and are looking to win their first national championship.
For the first time since 1997-98, Auburn has won four straight conference road series.
“I think it hit them like a ton of bricks early,” Graba said. "In the end, you just got to survive and advance.”
“Our defense let us down today,” said head coach Mickey Dean. “We had five errors on routine, easy plays. We would never have faced the heart of Kentucky’s lineup in the seventh with a clean game. We played hard, but we have to do the little things.”
It was the Tigers first road series win at College Station since 2013.
Auburn’s six-run comeback was the team’s largest since a seven-run comeback against Florida A&M in 2017.
"Today we played as a team instead of as nine individuals," head coach Mickey Dean said when talking about Auburn’s dominant performance in game two.
Bruce Pearl said, “But what I'll take from this team is the fact that they brought it every night. They won more games on the road than any team in the SEC in league play, and we have the best home court advantage in league play.” He added, “That's why we were able to finish. We finished 15-3 in the league. So champions.”
Overall, Auburn played a very up and down series against the No. 1 team in the nation, but showed if they do not shoot themselves in the foot with errors and leaving runners on, this Auburn team can play with anyone in the SEC or nation as evidenced by the second game win by the score of 19-5.
"Auburn's defense was outstanding. That’s been what has carried us all season long and that gives us our best chance in the tournament,” said Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl.
Auburn went wire-to-wire against the Frank Martin led Gamecocks (18-12, 9-9 SEC, defeating South Carolina 82-71. Jabari Smith led in scoring once again with 21 points, his third straight 20 point game, and KD Johnson was not far behind with 18.
Thanks to performances by Olympic Gold medalist Sunisa Lee, senior Derrian Gobourne and the largest crowd in Neville Arena history, Auburn set a program record with a score of 198.575, tying the Gators.
“This is one of the best regular season wins I’ve had,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said. “It was awesome to see the fight they had on the road and how bad they wanted to win this championship”.
“Nobody got settled Tonight, I like that," head coach Butch Thomson said on tonight's win.