Golden Eagle

I don't see anything magically changing between now and the end of the season - we've been on this trajectory for a loooooong while now. I was aware that DT Gasso (I think you mean DT at the end of your paragraph above) was an assistant at OU but didn't know about DJ. I looked at his bio and agree he would be an intriguing hire for Auburn. Coaching changes need to happen sooner rather than later! I'm very concerned what another mediocre season is doing to future recruiting. Sad to say this, but it's hard to understand why a top recruit would be attracted to Auburn with this coaching staff. Emily Carosone was an outstanding batter as a player. I understand that being able to do something yourself doesn't mean you can effectively teach someone else. But her staff bio says she works with the infielders and catchers. For the rest of this season, why not switch Carosone and Lenti? He has been ineffective. Give Emily a shot.

Why did they quit?

Don't know if this is new info, but it was to me. Per Reuters, Mitchell initially evaded the police, driving 141 mph. Police later spotted the car again and made the arrest. A top football recruit at the University of Alabama has admitted to fleeing cops in Florida ahead of his arrest last week on possession of marijuana charges, according to a new report. The vehicle driven by freshman defensive back Tony Mitchell hit a speed of 141 mph after police first attempted to pull it over, according to AL.com, which cited a police report. Police then lost sight of the vehicle and called off their pursuit, but an officer spotted it later and Mitchell finally pulled over. The freshman football star is said to have admitted to cops that he tried to evade law enforcement, “claiming [his passenger] told him to ‘punch it,’” the report notes. More than $7,000 in cash and 226 grams of marijuana were subsequently found in the car, and both Mitchell and his passenger were charged with marijuana possession. Mitchell, a four-star recruit, was suspended by the team over his arrest and got a public dressing down from coach Nick Saban on Monday. “There’s no such thing as the wrong place at the wrong time. It is what it is, but there is cause and effect when you make choices and decisions that put you in bad situations,” Saban said at a press conference.

If you love Auburn, Auburn will love you back. I hope Zep feels the love for the rest of his life. 🧡💙🧡💙🧡💙

Game 5 vs Oklahoma - Oklahoma wins 7-1 in 6.5 innings. Auburn goes 1-4 over the weekend. Auburn wasn't run-ruled today but it was a tough outing nonetheless. They are now 22-9 on the season. Auburn had 1 run on 2 hits with 1 error and 3 batters left on base. They walked 2 times and struck out 13 times. Peralta's lead-off HR was the only score. Oklahoma had 7 runs on 12 hits with 0 errors and 7 batters left on base. They walked 1 time and struck out 6 times. Oklahoma had 3 2-run HRs. Penta pitched the first 4 1/3 innings and is tagged for the loss bringing her to 11-4 on the season. Lowe pitched 2/3 of an inning and Rolfe pitched the last inning. They face Missouri in Auburn next weekend for a Saturday, Sunday, Monday series.

Game is at 2:00 pm today on ESPN+. Or, if you don't pay for the ESPN+ subscription, you can listen to it on auburntigers.com like I'll be doing. It has been a pretty bad weekend for Auburn sports. Basketball lost to Houston last night after after playing lights out in the first half. Baseball lost big to Arkansas both Friday and Saturday. The final game of that series is on SEC+ today at 2:00 pm. Suni Lee did not compete (due to injury) for the 3rd weekend in a row as Auburn scored what I think is their lowest overall score of the year (197.10) at the SEC gymnastics championship. They ended up in 5th place behind Florida, Alabama, LSU, and Kentucky. And, of course, Suni wasn't available to compete for any of the individual titles or the overall title. Bummer. Cassie Stevens was our biggest star with strong performances across the board - and she tied for the vault individual champion. And, finally, we're 1-3 in softball heading into this afternoon's finale against Oklahoma.

Game 4 vs Oklahoma: Oklahoma run-ruled Auburn 14 - 0 in 4.5 innings Oklahoma scored 4 runs in the first inning, 5 in the third, and 5 in the 4th. They hit 5 home runs, 3 of them in the first inning. Auburn had a total of 4 hits and left 5 runners on base. At the plate they were 0-7 with runners on base and 0-5 with runners in scoring position. They were also charged with 1 error. Widra pitched the first 2 2/3 innings. Tresvik pitched the final 1 1/3 innings and Milanowski/Roach/Smith subbed in as well so they got some (reality check) playing time. I realize Oklahoma is the number 1 team in the country but this was a beat-down. Auburn is mediocre on both offense and defense against good teams. Would love for them to prove me wrong tomorrow afternoon in their final game of the weekend against Oklahoma but I'm not holding my breath.

Well below our highest score for the year - surprised it was enough to win the session. Lower than average scores for all 4 teams. Dang it, definitely missing Suni. Will be interesting to see if other session(s) are judged just as strictly... Cassie's vault was amazing. I agree with comments above - what the heck did the judges deduct for?

Game 3 vs Northwestern: Northwestern walks it off with a 2-run homerun. Northwestern 6 - Auburn 5 Same old/same old. Guessing Auburn will be clobbered by Oklahoma tonight.

Wow, that IS a surprising result. Northwestern may well end up back in the top 25 after this weekend - maybe at the expense of Auburn. Very interested to see if Auburn can hang with Oklahoma tonight; hope springs eternal.

Not their best effort today...disappointing. Hope they perform better tomorrow.

Abbie Smith and Carlee McCondichie can both slap and bunt (and Carlee can swing away)...but both have been penalized more than once this year for being out of the batter's box when they made contact with the ball. Batters used to get away with that quite a bit in the past but the officials started calling it more consistently last year. The rule about contact out of the box also changed. Now, instead of an automatic out, the opposing team gets to decide whether to penalize the batter with a strike or take the result of the play. Obviously if the batter was thrown out, they'll choose the out. If the batter already has 2 strikes, the penalty strike results in them being called out. If the batter made it to first safely and had less than two outs strikes, the opposing team will choose to penalize the batter with a strike and send them back to the batter's box to try again. I wonder if teams will move away from slapping if they get called frequently for being out of the box...you can't move much and still be in. That being said, do you really need to take a few steps before contact to slam the ball into the dirt and get a high bounce? Very rarely see Auburn do that but it can be very effective.

Game 2 vs Northwestern: Another maddeningly frustrating game. Northwestern wins 2-1. Observations: Maddie Penta pitched the entire game and struck out 12. However, she threw 124 pitches (not sure if/how that will affect her for the rest of the weekend). NW scored 2 runs on 4 hits while AU scored 1 run on 5 hits. Can't string together hits or hit when it matters. Trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the 7th, Godwin had a base hit, then Packer had a base hit...and then, with 2 on base and no outs...Bryant struck out swinging, Blaine flied out, and Peralta popped up. It's beyond comprehension that we see this same pattern year after year under CMD and nothing changes...

Game 1 vs Weber St: Auburn won game 1 against Weber St 4-2. I only saw the last couple of innings. Looks like Widra pitched the first 2 innings and then Shelby Lowe took over. The positives: Lowe was effective. Auburn struck out 12 Weber St batters. Denver Bryant hit her first home run of the season (with the bases empty) in the top of the 7th with 2 outs. The not-so-positives: Auburn only had 3 hits to Weber St's 6 hits. Looks like Auburn lined out and flied out a lot and struck out 6 times. Also, Abbie Smith was called out after what looked like a base hit for being out of the batters box when she made contact with the ball. That has happened several times this year. Offensive woes continue.

#19 Auburn is playing in a tournament in Oklahoma City this weekend with Weber State, Northwestern, and #1 Oklahoma. Auburn's games: Friday 11:00 am vs Weber St 1:45 pm vs Northwestern Saturday 1:30 pm vs Northwestern 6:30 pm vs Oklahoma Sunday 2:00 pm vs Oklahoma The games vs Weber St and Northwestern can be viewed (without any audio) at this web site: https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Softball/Events/2023/March/17/Omni-Hall-of-Fame-Classic/Live-Streaming Audio for all Auburn games available on auburntigers.com The games vs Oklahoma can be streamed on ESPN+ Edit: Northwestern was ranked #24 last week. They fell out of the top 25 this week.

ESPN's Jay Bilas thinks Iowa will win: https://hawkeyeswire.usatoday.com/lists/iowa-basketball-espn-jay-bilas-picks-hawkeyes-ncaa-tournament-auburn-tigers/

I believe you are correct. It looks like you buy 'session' tickets, not individual game tickets. This makes sense as there surely isn't time to clear the arena and parking lots and fill them back up again between games within a session. Following info is from the BJCC web site: Experience March Madness® in Birmingham March 16 & 18, 2023 at Legacy Arena! The Southeastern Conference hosts the First and Second Rounds of the NCAA ® Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. TICKETS ON SALE NOW! All-Session Tickets for First & Second Rounds Include: Session 1 | March 16 | 2 Games Session 2 | March 16 | 2 Games Session 3 | March 18 | 2 Games Purchase all-session tickets today

Here's the schedule for Thursday at BJCC: 11:15 a.m.: Maryland vs. West Virginia (CBS) 1:45 p.m. Alabama vs. TAMU-CC/SEMU (CBS) 5:50 p.m.: Auburn vs. Iowa (TNT) 8:20 p.m.: N. Kentucky vs. Houston (TNT)

After the disappointing outing against GA Tech on Wednesday it was a relief to see the Auburn women swinging the bats tonight - a great road win! Shelby Lowe hasn't (yet) pitched as well this season as she did her freshman year. Hope she's just a little rusty and will snap back soon; otherwise it may be a long season. Looks like we're depending on Penta, Lowe and Widra this year. Both Tresvik and Rolfe have pitched a few innings but it appears they need some additional time to develop so not sure how much of them we'll see going forward (assuming Penta, Lowe and Widra stay healthy). TV for tomorrow: 1st game on SEC network at 11:00 CST. Second game will stream on SEC+ approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of game 1.

When you shared last Saturday that she was in a boot and limping I wondered if there was any way she could compete this week..didn't seem likely. Hope this isn't the end of her Auburn career.

The hat is fine. He's fair-skinned and the job requires him to be in midday sun a lot so a hat with a wide brim is appropriate. The issue is softball. CMD has been fairly successful in recruiting talented players, and finding some hidden gems like Tresvik, but his teams have under-performed at Auburn. As others have stated, we should play at least a few highly-ranked teams very early in the season - well before the start of SEC play - to get a true assessment of the team's strengths and weaknesses. And then addresses the weaknesses. What I don't understand is why they can't seem to adjust to great pitchers the second time through the lineup (like great teams do) and HIT THE BALL. Like GA Tech did against Maddie Penta. When they do get on base, they (or CMD) make bad base-running decisions that result in outs and compound our offensive woes. If a catcher has demonstrated that they have a strong, accurate arm and an ability to throw out a runner...maybe don't keep trying to steal bases unless there's a passed ball or some other circumstance that increases the odds of success. I've read/seen multiple interviews with Kasey Cooper, Emily Carosone, Tiffany Howard, etc, over the years about how Clint Myers came in and told the team he inherited that they were going to OKC. He didn't say that AU would go to OKC in 4-5 years once he brought in his own players. He told the team he inherited. They thought he was delusional. But he made them believe in themselves, made them work hard, and delivered results no one could have anticipated. Too bad he covered for his wayward son, created a very bad situation for the team and the university, and tanked the program. Emily Carosone - a superstar on those teams - is now on CMD's staff. I know it won't happen, but would really like to hear her perspective on what's different with this team/coaching staff and why they can't seem to achieve greatness like she experienced with Myers.

Agree that offense is a concern (again)...both at the plate and running the bases. Auburn was thrown out 3 times today. I didn't see the game - just listened on the app - so not sure how reckless the running errors were. But 3 times sounds reckless, especially when they had so much trouble getting on base in the first place. Wondered whether we could have pulled off a win without those 3 outs? Wish we had played a few more competitive teams over the past month in preparation for SEC play. Hoping the team gets their mojo back by Friday.

from Auburn baseball twitter feed yesterday (March 7) at noon:

I hope it's not too serious and she will be fully healthy again very soon. Hate - for her, the team, the University, and us fans - that her final season at Auburn hasn't lived up to the promise of even more success than last year. Hoping they finish strong and leave a legacy that attracts future highly-rated gymnasts to Auburn.

Kentucky 197.675 - Auburn 196.450 Ouch!