OlderWhiskey

Louisiana finally subdued UNCW in the 11th inning, 3-1. They had 16 hits. I think Schormer pitched the whole game again for the Cajuns. Wilmington changed pitchers in the 11th, and she gave up a 2-run homer. Estimate our game to start at 7:15 Central. Stanfor beat Alabama 6-0 today; their first regional loss since 2007.

I don't know that Peralta misplayed that. Tough over-the-shoulder attempt. Had it snowconed, bit it slid out, and past the trailing Garcia. Just a lucky placement for Clemson.

A very good win over a top-of-the-line 3 seed. Ask Georgia and MSU about Liberty and South Florida. Penta threw at least 10-12 strikes that were called balls, costing us at least one run. Happily, Ellis got her HR eye back, which won the game for us. Both teams had some hard-hit balls that were run down in the outfield. Nice infield play, especially from Cox. Bottom line, we broke our 5-game losing streak by coming from behind against a good team. Hope we can force Clemson to play them next.

The Cajuns went 45-11 this year. Being in the Sun Belt, they don't build much RPI. The knock on them was always their schedule (at least the past few years). This year, they lost twice to Alabama, twice to LSU and twice to Texas. They did beat Texas once. They beat UAB 23-0 in one game, but also lost games to Georgia Southern and Georgia State.

Didn't forget them, but they both played in 2017. Cooper's average fell off a lot, but I think Wallace led the team. She then transferred to Baylor.

Arkansas defeated Missouri 4-0 for the championship, getting 12 hits to Missouri's 2. I missed it because I thought it started at 7 Central. Maybe they jump-started because of weather. Missouri only scored 6 runs in 3 games to reach the final.

Arkansas put one inning together, mostly on Florida mistakes, and beat them 4-1. Florida's pitcher Krlicek mishandled a couple of easy ground balls. Arky-Mizzou should be a good game, unless Missouri's pitching is worn out. Missouri reminds me a bit of Ole Miss a few years back (2017), when they got hot and won the tournament behind one pitcher (Lee?), when it was in Knoxville.

Agree with your post. Most likely bama will be in a super, but not virtually guaranteed like recent years. Their offense has suffered without big #16. Florida is off also - Missouri is positioned well to win the tournament.

Missouri 3, Alabama 0. Looks like we aren't the only team who can't score on Missouri. I think they will beat Tennessee also. Lost twice to them in Columbia, but they are playing hot now. Good coaching job going on there.

FWIW - the final SEC hitting stats reveal our leading hitter in SEC play to be Ellis at .288. followed incrementally by Peralta, McCondichie, Blaine, Garcia, Cox, Packer, Godwin, and Lisenby (.206). I omitted Bryant (.318) due to her shortened season. Ellis had the only OPS over 1. Notably, McCondichie's OPS was only .639, because she drew only 2 walks in SEC play. Note 3 of the top 4 hitters are freshmen. That suggests to me that hitting is mostly natural talent. Hitters don't seem to really get better during their college careers. Of course, I'm looking only at Auburn. We had great hitting teams in 2015 and 2016, but the 2017 was a big drop down after Howard, Carosone, and Rhodes left.

The UT series was also reminiscent of the 2016 series there, with bad weather and postponements. The best team in Auburn history lost 2 there, and the 3d was cancelled. Our RPI is back to 28 now, so I think we are almost certain to draw FSU in regionals. Missouri gave Alabama a very competitive series.

Gotta say that's the worst draw available in our first round. Can't believe UK is the 4 seed - I think we're better than they are.

She continues to wear a bandage on her left lower triceps. I don't recall her doing that last year.

Note the conference BA has gone from .208 to .242, and HRs from 8 to 37. Also, OPS has gone from .541 to .825 in-conference. So, there has definitely been improvement at the plate. We played an easier schedule this year to build confidence in the freshmen, and I think to pad Dean's W-L record, as he was in the last year of his contract. I don't think he expected to make OKC this year. I agree with tgrogan that the biggest impact on our W-L has come from losing Lowe as an effective starter. She was our dominant pitcher last year. Here's hoping she heals up and returns to her freshman form next year. And I do think youth matters; one reason Arkansas has done so well is the number of 5th year seniors they have.

UT wins Game 1 5-2. Penta gives up only 5 hits and strikes out 11, but UT apparently gets the hits at crucial times. Cox homers for AU, only 3 other hits. Ellis ofer.

Friday's game has been postponed due to rain. Teams will play a DH on Saturday beginning at 10:30.

Good post. Our RPI was 28 coming into the UGA series, and theirs was 17. 28 put us right in the crosshairs for FSU, who had a 5 RPI entering the weekend. They swept Oklahoma St., which should move them up. We should move up also. If we can get into the low 20s at least, we'd be better positioned to draw Duke or Clemson. Our nearness to Tallahassee works against us also. Update: We moved up to 26, and FSU up to 4. The perfect match for FSU's 2 seed is 29, based on RPI. I think we need to move up some more to escape Tallahassee. UT lost their series with OM in Oxford; they should be about 12 RPI. As Jad0003 said above, we probably need to win the UT series and a couple games in the tournament to avoid FSU.

Tennessee run-ruled Ole Miss tonight, making them 12-7, so we would definitely need to sweep them to be in the Top 4 and get the bye. Right now, the odds-on Top 4 are Arky, Alabama, UT and Florida; but who knows what may happen.? There are 4 teams tied at 11-10 right now, which creates a lot of possibilities. Also wondering about the NCAA. Our RPI isn't good enough for us to host (although maybe it would be if we swept UT). We're likely a 2 seed for some team in the Southeast.

Check back tomorrow night, as UT and Ole Miss have played only one game of their series. Also, Florida has finished their SEC schedule at 13-11, while we are 11-10. I think the only way we could get to 4th is to sweep UT, as Florida would have the tiebreaker as a result of winning our series. One UT-Mizzou game was cancelled earlier in the season. Or, if OM were to sweep UT, we would only need to win the series to move ahead of UT. Missouri is currently 1/2 game ahead of us, but they are playing Alabama next weekend.

Today's game pretty much bookended with the first game. Kersics had her best stuff today, and Penta didn't. Encouraged that Lowe could come in and get as many innings as she got. Happy for Yarbrough and Godwin that their last appearances at JBM were at least personally positive.

Ellis has hit two balls off the top 12" of the left field wall in the last wo games. As I typed this, Godwin just blasted one in what is probably her last at bat at JBM.

Great game by the Tigers; maybe the best of the year. Finally, KK seems like a "real" pitcher to me. Anyone know the last time we won 4 consecutive SEC games? All the subbing and moving by Dean seems to be having a beneficial effect. Edit to answer my own question: In 2018, we won the last two against Alabama, swept Kentucky, and took the first two from Ole Miss for 7 consecutive.

Georgia now has 91 homers, and we have 80. Finch really crushed that one in top 6. Have to mention Kenadie Cooper's catch in RF that saved some runs early.

Thanks TGrogan for all the details. Kinda hard to figure what Dean is up to, but at least it worked for a win today. So Packer can bat and run, but can't play CF? Why did Cox not start at third? And lo and behold, we won a game without hitting a homer? Has that even happened all season? Seriously, this was an important win - broke our 6-game conference losing streak. Edited to say: Auburn still has a chance to make some noise. Two cases in point: 1) Missouri (5-9) opened their series with Kentucky with a 13-0 drubbing of the Wildcats. 2) Texas A&M (3-12) won the first two games from Alabama. Today's win was a 9-1 run-rule.

We don't need no stinkin' singles. 5 hits and 3 of them leave the yard.