slot canyon

Just noticed Beth Mowins will be doing the Play by Play and Michele Smith will be the analyst. Not exactly may favorites.

Article by Phillip Marshall says team flies out from Atlanta this afternoon. Taylon traveling but not expected to play. Also says plan to apply for medical redshirt for Makayla Martin. I saw an earlier article that she plans to apply to graduate school at AU so maybe something is in the works. I thought she had played just beyond the limits to qualify for a medical redshirt but would be glad to be wrong.

Just an observation...….of the seven games completed to date the margin of victory has been 3 runs or less in 6 of those games with a margin of 5 runs in the Ol' Miss/MS game. Appears pitching is ruling the day, for the most part. At this time I notice KY up by 7 over the Rebs who have 2 errors and only in bottom of 3rd. They had 3 errors vs Mississippi State.

As Hospoprn stated above there appears to be a loss of confidence by many of our batters. There was some good effort on defense but overall there seems to have been a decline in team chemistry since about half way through our SEC schedule. Hope my impression is wrong.

New start time 8:30.

Looks like fairly high probability for rain/and thunder storms tonight in Fayetteville, Arkansas. May want to keep an eye on the AU twitter for possible game reschedule.

Scheduled for Friday 6 pm, Sat. 5 pm and Sunday 1 pm (Central). Current weather projections indicate chance of thunderstorms for Friday. First and last game on SEC Network + with Sat. game ESPNU. Games played at Bogle Park, a nice facility with 1,200 chairback seats, 6 skyboxes (👎) and generous outfield area. Courtney Deifel came as head coach in June 2015 after a year at Maryland as HC and serving as assistant at Louisville. Last year they were 12-12 in conference play and Auburn won the series at home. In conference play this year they have a record of 9 - 12 and have recorded series wins against SC, KY and LSU while having series losses against Ol' Miss, Tenn., and T A&M. They were swept by Florida. All following stats are conference play only Autumn Storms is most used pitcher with 74 innings pitched and era 1.69 and is 6-6 in conference play. Mary Haff has pitched 48 innings and has record 3-6 and era 3.35. On offence Hannah McEwen has BA .424 and ob% .494 and apparently a "slapper" as she has 2 doubles but no triples or HR. The next 5 batters in the line up have BA in mid to high 200's (.245 - .286). Diaz, Gibson and Warrick have provided the most home runs with 5, 4, and 4 respectively in conference play. I feel we will be fortunate to win a series at this point but would be especially at a disadvantage if the potential weather causes us to have to play a double header on Saturday. Both of our current primary pitchers have had some good moments and this week end would be an ideal time to be in a good groove. Would like to see some confidence in our hitters.

4WDE, do you have time to explain the rules as related to this situation. I have tried to decipher the DP/Flex substitution rules but not able to make the association to this situation. I know the announcers made reference to what you stated above, but wish they had provided more detail.

I was wondering the same thing. There is going to be a lot of weight given to Barnhill because of all the attention given to breaking the Florida strike out record but to me, getting 17 Ks against a top level opponent over that many innings with the number of pitches is more impressive. Problem is, I doubt any of us who follow this forum can qualify as "a neutral party". Also, Barnhill,a senior, has a lot of name recognition which may also work in her favor. Sometimes objectivity gets overruled by sentiment......we'll see.

I have only followed AU softball for about 4 years but thought that was the most gutsy performance by any AU pitcher I have ever seen. She appeared to maintain a confident , calm demeanor throughout the entire game. If anyone deserved the win, Harris did.

" Myers was just miles ahead of what Dean is now in recruiting, developing, and just having postseason runs. We were National runner ups a few years ago and now we can’t even host a regional" As stated in previous forum topics, many of the players who contributed to the success of the teams coached by Myers were here when he arrived; I believe he was able to coach them up to maximum abilities. I went to several practices in the fall and spring after his first season and I was amazed and impressed at how fast and intense it was. They were in some ways as fun as watching a game..... so many moving parts going on at one time. He was right to say that after their practices, the games would seem slow. I believe he did upgrade the quality of our pitching staff. Myers had a higher recognition profile since he had 2 titles at Arizona State and took AU to the WCWS twice. Dean, though respected for what he has done during his coaching career, is on a lower platform by comparison. I believe Dean has been caught short handed as we have had a number of prior high rated commits change their minds and go to other programs. It seems we have a pretty good class coming in this next year but still need some pitching help and reliable hitting. Another possible variable is that Myers basically brought an intact coaching staff (Corey came over from the Thunderbolts)while Dean had to scramble twice to put his in place. Not making excuses, just considering some of the variables. I would like to see the current staff and team succeed but what appeared to be an overachieving team has now taken a skid. Never a good thing to lose your top pitcher but overall team confidence appears to be in decline. Hope I am wrong and we see some sort of turn around this weekend.

It would be nice if the TV folks would not be so inclined to show so much of that stuff. Just encourages some to do it in order to get some face time. I believe in having fun but fail to see the connection between upside down visors and sun glasses and winning a game. Some players seem not to participate in those antics. Must admit I am looking at this through the lenses of a senior citizen and not a 18 -21 year old. Also the frustration of our last couple of series.

It does seem like we almost always "take" the first pitch; rarely see a swing in that situation and opponents seem to know it. It's almost like a 3-0 count with high probability of a good pitch to hit. Puts the hitter in the hole right away. Get the impression too many of our batters are swinging for the fences. That entire series was painful to watch. I believe the Kentucky pitcher, Baalman, was 6-8 prior to our series and she shut us out in two games. Not sure what to expect going forward with our obvious limitations.

Kentucky, I thought, did a good job with the "small ball" aspect of the game. The home runs were served up basically waist high middle of the plate. Their SS was great as advertised. At times we seemed to make routine plays look difficult. I felt Veach was giving good effort the entire game but not sure if some of the other players were "locked in". We may have some pitching deficiencies but we need to over come that by upping our efforts on defense and at the plate. If we don't do something to change to momentum we will get run out of town tonight. Hope Harris can have a decent night in the circle and the team can shake off these first two games.

Handley definitely had better control Wednesday night. She fielded several ground balls and did not hurry the throw to 1st base. The team really needs to get some quality innings from her. I got tickled seeing Bree's reaction as she rounded 2nd base raising her arms after the home run. She came so close in the last series to putting one over the fence.