AuburnFamilyNews.com: Weekend Review: Tigers Get the Job Done in Athens

Monday, May 3, 2021

Weekend Review: Tigers Get the Job Done in Athens

Auburn @ #20 Georgia

  • Thursday: 4-0 L
  • Friday: 10-6 W/14
  • Saturday: 9-7 W

Did you have a great weekend? I had a great weekend! It had been a long time coming for sure but the Tigers got their first SEC Series win in eight tries (yeah, since May 2019 but remember that whole cancel the season before it got started thing in 2020) and they did it on the road against a ranked opponent no less. After getting shut down in a best of the year performance from Ryan Webb for Georgia on Thursday night which also saw Auburn only have 1 bad inning on the mound while the offense struggled to get anything going, the Tigers bounced back winning two in a row where the offense put up the numbers and the pitching staff did just enough to get past the Dogs. Over the two wins, the Auburn offense would pound out 19 runs on 26 hits while the Bulldog staff, which entered the series with the most walks given out in the SEC, only gave out 7 free passes in the 23 innings that were played over the less than 24 hours the two Tiger wins happened in. I could go on and on about how this is a team win, but I will let the highlights tell the story.

Friday Night’s Marathon

Saturday’s Series Clencher

With the series win, things have really opened up for the Tigers. Thanks to Mississippi State and uat’s sweep of Texas A&M and Missouri, the Tigers find themselves tied with those two teams for the final spot in the SEC tournament race.

If you chase down the tiebreakers (at least as far as I can understand them), if the season ended today, Auburn would be in line for that final spot in Hoover, with LSU still within shooting distance with 9 games left. Also in the Tigers favor, Auburn plays at home this weekend against LSU, next weekend at home against Texas A&M and then closes the season on the road at Missouri, which means the Tiger’s future is quite literally in their own hands. Here’s a look at how the seeding would break out with the current standings as well, just incase you were wondering.

Hitting Performance of the Weekend

If this was Ryan Bliss’s last trip to play in his home state while at Auburn, he sure made it memorable. With his family on hand to witness the greatness, Bliss would go 5 for 11 in Auburn’s two wins, with three runs scored, a home run, five RBIs, two doubles and a walk. Bliss has been absolutely one of my favorite players to watch for the Tigers over these last 2.5 seasons and I wish we had more time with him beyond this season but the Major League will be calling if they know what they are doing. The man is a consummate team leader who I’ve never once seen with his head down or a pouted lip. He goes about his work the right way and is a professional before he ever needed to be and I cannot wait to follow his career after Auburn.

Pitching Performance of the Weekend

If you would have told me that Auburn would play 32 innings this weekend and take the series against Georgia, first I would have said, thank God Auburn didn’t have a midweek game and someone in the pen had to step up and give above and beyond. This weekend it was Peyton Glavine, who went out and threw 3 complete innings where the only thing on his line was the 5 strikeouts he passed to Bulldog hitters from the 7th through 9th innings. At times, Glavine has struggled to find his footing during his Auburn career but in the past couple of outtings, Glavine has found his way and has become a reliable arm out along with Carson Swilling and Will Morrison.

ON DECK

This week, the Tigers begin a 4 game home stand with UAB on Tuesday evening at 6pm as they work to win the season series over the Blazers. Following that Auburn will make a quick turn to take on LSU for another Thursday through Saturday series. We have already touched on the current state of the SEC standings so needless to say, this weekend will be huge for the Tigers as LSU is squarely on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament so you will see two teams getting after it this weekend. We will do a deeper dive on LSU on Wednesday after the UAB game. In the meantime, let this series win wash over you and enjoy every bit of it. As we’ve found out, these are hard to come by, but hopefully this is the beginning of that illusive run the Tigers have been looking for.



from College and Magnolia - All Posts https://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2021/5/3/22417059/weekend-review-tigers-get-the-job-done-in-athens
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