OlderWhiskey

We narrowly won the two games in MGY today - 5-1 over AUM and 4-3 over Alabama State. Left most of that offense from last weekend back in Lee County, evidently. Rolfe and Widra the prominent pitchers - haven't used Penta or Lowe. Clemons and Tamborra have thrown some innings. Lots of players seeing action in the infield. Smith, Packer and McCrary anchoring the outfield pretty much. Smith a good day at the plate today. See the X page for starting lineups and game bulletins. Wondering about Aubrie Lisenby. She hasn't played this fall, and was the only player missing from the "Dinner on the Diamond" photo. Elkins and Wohlers have been catching. Edit: Per the article at auburntigers.com, Clemons struck out the side in the 7th to get the save in the ASU game.

I did not attend the games, but there may be pictures on Facebook or X that show the crowd. Pittman threw 8 pitches against us when we beat them 11-0 at Troy back in the spring, scoring a strikeout and a walk.

Over Snead (18-2) and Troy (14-0). Hit over .400 on the day with 6 homers from Packer (2), Amelia Lech (2), McCrary, and McNemar. Widra was 5 for 5 while pitching and playing short and 3d. All pitching by Widra, Rolfe, Clemons, and Tamborra. More details on Auburn Softball X page. Here's a link to the official article: https://auburntigers.com/news/2023/10/1/softball-offense-shines-auburn-softball-sweeps-snead-state-troy.aspx

I just noticed they have posted the photos of the 8 new players. Not sure exactly when that happened. Cooper may have left some time back, and they just removed her pic when they put up the new ones.

For want of a nail . . .

Good stuff from 2016. I did notice that several of our batters would have been called out under today's rule regarding batter's box violations. Don't know what the rule was then. Hope all these girls are enjoying their current lives, wherever they are. I know that Tiffany Howard is a vet in Clarksvile, TN.

This is the team with the 2015 SEC tournament trophy. Top: Lexi Davis, Kelsey Bogaards, Maria Mitchell, Emily Spain, Victoria Draper, Madison Dickey, Madi Gipson, Haley Fagan, Carlee Wallace, Jordan Rocker, Marci Harper, Rachel Walters, and Kimberlee Myers. Bottom: Courtney Shea, Whitney Jordan, Sydne Waldrop, Jade Rhodes, Jenna Abbott, McKenzie Kilpatrick, Morgan Estell with trophy, Branndi Melero, Emily Carosone, Anna Gibbs, Tiffany Howard, and Kasey Cooper. I hope/think I have these correct, and apologize to any young lady I may have misidentified.

This photo was posted on the AU Softball Twitter (X) page with no identifications. I think I have finally identified each player. I'll post my results in a couple of days. Anyone else who gives a rip and has the time is welcome to take this little challenge.

Happy for Coach C. Does this bode anything for the future?

Myers resigned prior to fall practice in 2017.

LP Tiger makes a good point about perception's being based on the W-L record. Whether Dean has improved the program or not depends on where one measures from. The only way to improve on the Myers record is to actually win the championship, or at least make it to OKC more than 2 consecutive years. That's what we all want. When we hired Dean, however, we were damn glad to get him. Myers had left us in the lurch right before the start of fall practice, leaving the program in a precarious position and costing us a bunch of committed prospects. With the fallout from the scandal (Auburn coaches raping players!), we didn't know how low we would have to reach to get a coach. Dean was a respected, nationally known coach at JMU. It seemed like a home run hire for Greene, and it may have been. Compared to the mess we were in when he was hired, Dean has definitely improved the program. I'm not a big fan of Dean's, but I think he has accomplished what he was hired for.

This does not even remotely compare to what happened with Corey Myers. It seems to be some players who are unhappy with the way Dean coaches and treats them as people. The portal has made it easier for them to move on to a place where they like the culture better. Same thing happened at Alabama last year. Murphy lost 6 players, including Skylar Wallace, arguably the best position player in the league. I don't recall any investigation of that. I don't care much for Dean, but he finished 3d in the league. There is nothing to be investigated. As for the players, I love them all, and wish them well going forward. As for Carlee, she was one of my favorites also. I hate it that the end of her career didn't mirror the first 95% of it, but I still remember lots of great things she did, including that homer off Fouts a couple of months ago. War Eagle, all.

Ninety percent of baseball is half mental.

Thanks for posting. I think a lot of pitchers have had both feet off the ground without being sanctioned. Some interesting changes proposed. The thing about removing the bat knobs bothers me, though. I guess I don't understand, but I have visions of players being cold-cocked with slung bats windmilling through the infield.

Careful! Are they playing Alabama?

Exactly why some of the girls may take the "I'm playing with house money" approach. Like finding a $20 bill in your winter coat that was left in there last winter - what am I going to spend this on?

Reasonable thoughts. Ellis has a sister at Houston, also. Garcia is from S. Florida, a long run to Auburn. She could catch on with S. or Central Florida, Florida Atlantic, et. al., and be much closer to family. McCondichie the same with UAB or Samford.

Just a quick comparison: Myers' 2017 team had a team BA of .277. Also drew 328 walks compared to 238 walks for the 2023 team. That's an extra 1.5 base runners per game. They won 49 games compared to 43 for the 2023 team, went 17-7 in the SEC, and hosted a SR. Of course, we had the recent history of two trips to OKC. There was controversy over whether AU or OU should get the 8 seed. It went to us, but OU came over and beat us two straight. Oh, and the 2017 team had 51 homers compared to 64 for this year's team. Make of all this what you will, merely presenting some points of interest.

South Carolina was pitiful to start the season (got swept by Miss. St.), but have improved a lot recently. Gobourne is a formidable pitcher. During the tournament, it's who's playing hot right now, rather than the overall record. Ole Miss was playing hot, hence that difficult game yesterday. Expect more of the same from USC. I don't pull for 'Bama, but really hated to see Montana Fouts suffer that injury to her left foot/ankle last night. I don't think we'll see her again in this tournament. She was having a great game last night. Perhaps overuse contributed to the injury.

Very happy for the girls that they were able to fight through this one and pull it out; however, we had three baserunners thrown out. This has been a recurrent theme all season; we must lead the conference in it, if one could find such a stat. Can't make third from second on a grounder to short. My Little League team knew that. Rant over. Now let's pluck the Gamecocks!

We won 8-7.

The Lee girl for Ole Miss pitched every game the year they won the tournament - 2017 or 18?

Well, there has indeed been a weather delay. USC and aTm scheduled to re-start at 8:10, top 8, USC leading 1-0. Mizzou and Alabama to play after that. UK-Florida postponed until tomorrow, time not given. If they play first game, that will push us out until about 1. I'm thinking we need to start Lowe, or start Penta and bring in Lowe after 3 innings. We will need Penta to beat Georgia, if we get that far.

We went to Tucson in 2019. Beat Colorado State twice, but couldn't handle Arizona.