Baseball Staving off elimination

[aubiefifty 17,100]

al.com

Staving off elimination, Auburn baseball continues to assess its future

Published: May. 06, 2024, 6:31 a.m.

6–8 minutes

After Javon Hernandez slid into home for the winning run in a cathartic, chaotic temporarily season-saving 10-9 walk-off win over Ole Miss and his teammates raced out with him to celebrate in the outfield, outfielder Mason Maner’s mother Allison ran up to the top of the stands to give out hugs to fellow Auburn parents.

This year — this spiraling, fading year — has been disappointing and frustrating. It was an Auburn team that started the year receiving preseason top 25 votes that now needed a win with two weeks to play just to keep its long-shot chance at the 12th and final spot in the SEC Tournament alive if even for only a few more days. Maybe that’s just as hard on a mother, who had to watch her son battle through injuries and be rewarded Sunday as Maners hit a triple to start the 9th-inning rally which won Auburn this zany contest.

“Doesn’t matter how we’re doing, we’re going to keep fighting,” Hernandez said. “We’re going to try to honor Auburn University and we’re going to do that however we can.”

Auburn fell behind 5-0 then took a 6-5 lead in the 7th. It gave up the lead in the top of the 8th. Then took it back 8-6 in the bottom of the inning. In the top of the 9th, Auburn allowed a three-run double to Ole Miss’ Andrew Fischer giving the Rebels a 9-8 lead before Auburn scored two in the bottom of the 9th to win it.

It was nonsensical. An encapsulation of this season gone haywire.

Auburn is now 4-20 in SEC play. It needs to win out over its final six SEC games and have one of Ole Miss or LSU lose out just to get the final spot at the SEC Tournament. LSU and Ole Miss play each other in the final series of the year. Auburn is two SEC losses from tying a program record for conference losses in a single season.

The moms haven’t had much to cheer about this season. This frustration had finally yielded something to smile about.

What this win will mean to Auburn may only be symbolic. Auburn’s hopes at the postseason are so unlikely that it seems as if this was only staving off the inevitable for now. And maybe it was. But the point now according to head coach Butch Thompson is two fold: keep fighting, and assess what it has for the future.

“Some of this will pay dividends at some point down the road,” Thompson said Thursday. “We found some anchors to hold on in some of these young guys to get experience may before they were supposed to. That will help us at some point. Hopefully, it’s now. But nonetheless, whenever we get there, that will help us transition to get ready for next year.”

With a combination of injuries and struggles from those Thompson had expected to rely on, the Auburn head coach has turned over his roster in search of younger faces and faces without much playing time to find a spark, to build up for next season with time ticking down on this seemingly lost one.

Entering this weekend, freshmen and sophomore position players had accounted for 31% of all Auburn starts this season. Freshman and sophomore pitchers have accounted for 38% of all of Auburn’s total appearances on the mound this season.

In the SEC, a brutal baseball league so reliant on experience, those numbers are unusual.

Sophomore Dylan Watts has become Auburn’s Friday night starter and threw two strong innings to open Friday before faltering the third. Freshman Cam Tilly was on his way to an excellent day in relief on Carson Myers on Sunday before he was pulled due to an oblique injury.

Sophomores Ike Irish and Chris Stanfield are already a clearly established part of what Auburn will be next season. Irish is Auburn’s best player. Freshman Cade Belyeu started all three games for Auburn this weekend and now leads Auburn in on-base percentage among players who have started a game this season.

Freshman Eric Guevara and sophomore Gavin Miller continue to see more playing time which, while not consistently productive, is hoped to give them experience for the future when they will be relied on.

There are several juniors making cases to be big parts of next season, too. Start with Kaleb Freeman who went 3-6 this weekend and had a hit in every game including the game-tying hit in the 9th inning Sunday.

“Kaleb Freeman is not like a freshman but is a first-year player and took a long time,” Thompson said. “Hung in there probably more than anybody with the skill cause he’s showing some real skill. That was a huge pinch-hit that he had today and he swung the bat good at least as a threatening type, athletic, powerful swing that looks like a quick bat that he has. I’m proud of the way that he’s played, too.”

Nine freshmen and sophomores saw the field against Ole Miss. Six of them were starters at least once.

There are long-term pitching questions. Chase Allsup was supposed to be Auburn’s go-to guy as a Friday starter. He hasn’t been that. He was moved down to a midweek starter where he was excellent on April 23 against Florida A&M and Sunday — his first appearance since — was another strong performance.

His last two appearances have been a combined 9.2 innings allowing two total runs with six total hits and 17 strikeouts. He had a career-best nine strikeouts in his appearance Sunday against Ole Miss.

But Thompson suggested Allsup, a junior, could be looking at the MLB Draft this summer. Joseph Gonzalez, a redshirt junior, has not been reliable this season as he returns from an injury-plagued 2023 season.

What Auburn has lacked is a go-to guy. Parker Carlson had been that out of the bullpen, but even he allowed what looked at the time like the devastating game-winning Ole Miss double in the 9th inning.

Four freshmen or sophomore pitchers have pitched at least 10 innings this season.

Each have shown various flashes but none exactly screaming out as the solution.

Auburn isn’t eliminated yet, albeit that looks far more like a matter of when, not if. Thompson will continue to observe now. Questions will come later.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at mcohen@al.com

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[autan 754]

Like most of you I hope and think CBT will be back at Auburn next season. His biggest challenge may be trying to keep his talented guys from entering the transfer portal. I feel sure they all like Butch, but they also want to do what best for their careers. Most of us are pulling for you coach, but more importantly we're all pulling for Auburn to bounce back.