No. 19 Auburn defeats Kennesaw State 14-1 in midweek finale
“The last two games even though we won them we left 30 guys on-base, that third inning set us up pretty good," head coach Butch Thompson said.
“The last two games even though we won them we left 30 guys on-base, that third inning set us up pretty good," head coach Butch Thompson said.
“She has been a workforce, I told her the last couple days I really appreciate what she is doing right now,” said head coach Mickey Dean on Penta reaching the milestone.
“It fired her up a little bit. She had a good game against them earlier in the season. It is difficult to pitch well against the same team twice."
“I’m thankful to get this one…but it’s gonna be one of those weeks where we knew going into it how big a week this is gonna be,” Thompson said when talking about tomorrow night’s matchup versus Kennesaw State and this weekend’s series with the South Carolina Gamecocks.
In the top of the eighth inning Brooks Carlson hit a double down the right field line and there was a fielding error that allowed Bobby Peirce to score and gave Auburn a 3-2 lead. Blake Burkhalter was able to nail down the save for Auburn in the bottom of the ninth inning to help the Tigers avoid the sweep.
“Just really proud of the team. We are in an area that we have not been before…we proved some people wrong. I’m just really happy with our performance.” said Jeff Graba in his opening remarks to the press conference after the meet.
Auburn dominated the day winning the first game 8-0 in six innings and the second game 15-7 in five innings thanks to 26 total hits on the day, and riding fast starts to victory.
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.