Weekend Review: Tigers Find Mixed Bag in Round Rock

• Friday: Oklahoma, 4-3 L/10
• Saturday: Baylor, 12-6 L
• Sunday: Texas A&M, 6-1 W

A lot of people say that I am a silver lining person. I now know what they mean. After Saturday’s stinker of a ball game where Auburn played as bad as I’ve seen them play in a long while, I wasn’t sure how I would start this recap. Once Sunday began though, it was obvious that the Tigers had finally gotten over not getting a run home with the bases loaded and nobody out against Oklahoma on Friday and decided to be the team that we have seen most of the season so far. A buddy of mine said it best when he summed up what he watched in person, “I saw 16 horrid innings of Auburn baseball, and 13 really strong innings.” Sadly, that only equates to a 1-2 weekend for the Tigers. However, baseball is a different sport from College Football and even College Basketball. A loss hurts, but, when you are in the SEC, there are plenty of chances to make up for that loss later in the year. Just look at Ole Miss, they ran into a program Auburn knows all too well, UCF. The Knights took 2 of 3 from the former #1 team in the nation. There is still plenty of time for the Tigers to make noise, they just need to get healthy (Jack Owen and now Judd Ward) and make their hay.

Pitching Performance of the Weekend

Trace Bright

We are going to lean heavy into the A&M game here but its Trace Bright and its not close. Cody Greenhill had a good day on Friday holding the Sooners at bay and had the offense let him down a bit, but Bright had pitched earlier in the week against Alabama A&M and was set to pitch on Tuesday against Jacksonville State before Auburn threw Mason Barnett in that Friday OU game. Bright responded with a gem of an outing, going 6 strong innings only giving up 3 hits with 2 walks and a strike out. Bright had beautiful command of the zone and was able to get Aggie hitters to put the pitches he wanted in play. The defense also returned to form after some shaking innings on Friday and Saturday to bolster the effort for Trace. Huge weekend and a gold star for the young man.

Hitting Performance of the Weekend

.@Ty_Mill_14 this week:

7-for-15, 7 R, 2 HR, 9 RBI#WarEagle pic.twitter.com/x14hzDafg5

— Auburn Baseball (@AuburnBaseball) February 28, 2021

If there was someone who got comfortable after a slow start in the double R, it was Tyler Miller. The JUCO transfer from Spanish Fort had a goose egg after Friday’s game (0-4) but did a 180 for the rest of the weekend going 7 for 8 in the following two days that included a double, a triple, and a solo bomb in Saturday’s game against Baylor. Tack on an RBI and a run scored against A&M and that’s a pretty solid weekend. Both he and Bryson Ware have been welcome additions to the Auburn lineup while the Tigers try to find that perfect combination at the dish.

On Deck

The Tigers return for a 5 game home stand this week as they will host Jacksonville State on Tuesday before the Xavier Musketeers come calling for a 4 game weekend set. So far the X has taken a series from A&M but fell on hard times this past weekend at Wofford, dropping 3 of 4 to the Terriers. Jacksonville State is 4-3 on the season as they just finished off a 3 game sweep of Valpo at Rudy Abbott Field this past weekend. Game times are as follows:

• Tuesday – 4PM
• Friday – 4PM
• Saturday G1 – 2 PM
• Saturday G2 – 5:30 PM
• Sunday – 1 PM

from College and Magnolia - All Posts https://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2021/3/1/22306982/weekend-review-tigers-find-mixed-bag-in-round-rock