Auburn takes Game 3 from Bama

So Auburn won 7-1 today in Game 3 of the Iron Bowl of baseball series, at least avoiding the sweep. The win gives Auburn a game up on Bama in the standings, and leaves us only 2 games back of LSU as they prepare to come into town next weekend.

Grant Dayton was awesome on the mound today, picking up the win and pitching into the 8th inning and giving up just one run. One of the things that pleases me the most was what he did to Alabama leadoff hitter Taylor Dugas.

Dugas came into the 8th with three singles, and Dayton promptly hit him, and he was ejected along with Coach Pawlowski. For a team that came into the game scuffling big time and looking to avoid a sweep, I love seeing this kind of fire out of the players and coaching staff.

Of course nothing makes me happier than seeing Bama suffer, and this is certainly no exception. But the fact that Coach P and Dayton were willing to send a message and say they weren't backing down from the one hitter who was having a good day says a lot to me. Some will say it's dirty baseball to do something like that, but I would just say quit being gay. It's awesome.

If Auburn baseball is ever going to be able to move past the lowly status it has occupied for the past 7 years, it's going to take players and coaches that aren't willing to back down against anyone. Not only that, but the players and coaches have to let people know that this isn't the same program that's going to roll over and die as soon as things start going bad.

It sucks I have to say this, but winning the Sunday game when facing a sweep the past two weekends is very important, especially coming against two ranked teams. Auburn has had it's chances in the 4 games it has lost over the past two SEC weekends, so if they can figure out a way to get Cole Nelson some run support and get that Friday night starter figured out, this could turn out to be a very good year.

But Auburn has to move past winning just Sunday and start winning some series' for Pete's sake. I'm not sure what kind of suspension Pawlowski and Dayton will face, but let's just hope Dayton can go next weekend. Whatever the penalty is, it's worth it to show people this is a program they have to take seriously.

War Eagle!!

Bama beats Auburn, 10-5 in Friday night game

Auburn took a 1-0 lead last night, before giving up a 5-run inning that included 6 hits and 2 errors. Awful. Terrible. Inexcusable.

Never in my life have I seen a baseball team that has as much trouble fielding the ball and throwing people out*.

Anyway, Cole Nelson goes today for Auburn and if they can't scratch out a win with him on the mound, things aren't looking good for winning a game this series. Of course, Alabama's pitcher, also a Nelson, has a 1-something ERA, so that's just great.

We'll see how it goes. Check Twitter for updates.

*With the exception of my 9th grade junior varsity baseball team. Defense was not one of our strong suits.

Happy April Fool's Day/Baseball Update

A common image for Auburn baseball of the modern era. (Photo Credit OA News.)

It's April Fool's Day which I'm pretty sure isn't a real holiday or anything, I guess just made up to play awesome pranks on your stupid friends. But you can do that all year.

Auburn baseball is nearing the halfway point of the season, and guess what, it's been another up and down year for the Tigers. Currently their record sits at 17-8, 4-2 in the SEC. Last night they had a chance to boost that win total against a Trojan squad that entered with just a 12-11 record.

After a series loss to South Carolina last weekend and another big series looming at Alabama this weekend, this game actually may have been bigger than it seemed for John Pawlowski's team. And like Auburn baseball has done for the past 7 years, they underwhelmed. Big time.

An error by Dan Gamache allowed the last two runs to score and let Troy take a 5-4 lead that would hold up in the end. Troy's final three runs were all unearned. What is that???

Granted I haven't been to a ton of Auburn baseball games this year, but I just don't know if Gamache is going to get it done at 3rd base. In the first game of the USC series, I saw him boot a couple of key balls on plays that an infielder should be making.

Auburn had lowered it's ERA after a pretty decent pitching performance this past weekend, but still ranked 9th in the SEC heading into last night. They also rank 1st in batting average, HR's, and total bases.

This year's team appears to be shaping up very much like last year's. Decent start, hot hitting throughout, but suffers a late slide due to shaky defense and a terrible bullpen.

I don't know what they can do this year, besides try to continue to build depth and get a number of quality arms into the pitching rotation. For someone who's paid as much attention to this baseball program as I have since I started at Auburn in 2004, this is incredibly frustrating.

We'll see how things shake out this weekend in Tuscaloosa and returning home the next weekend to face LSU in Auburn. A series win in both of these matchups would be monumental for this team. Here's hoping.