Takeaways from Auburn's season-ending loss to Southern Mississippi
Auburn dropped the elimination game of their own regional, 6-2, to the University of Southern Mississippi and have been knocked out of postseason play.
With the loss, Auburn's final record is now 34-23-1.
Auburn's offense disappeared late
Auburn had one of the hottest group of bats in college baseball in the final half of the conference schedule, getting run-rule victories over #1 LSU and Ole Miss.
But ever since the loss to Vanderbilt in the SEC Tournament, Auburn's offense has gone missing.
Over this four game stretch, Auburn's been outscored 26-13. They've recorded twenty-three total hits, in thirty-eight innings, and struck out forty-one times.
For the Auburn Regional, the Tigers totaled twelve hits and five runs. Punching out fourteen times against Penn, Auburn did a better job of putting the ball into play on Saturday, with only three outs coming via strikeout
Here's the biggest takeaway for me: Auburn had one game this regular season with no extra base hits. They didn't collect one in either game of this Regional.
Said head coach Butch Thompson after the game: "It's hard to rely on two out hits at this stage. You need to do more damage earlier, we need to do a better job against the starters." He noted that Auburn's offensive approaches weren't that great until the 6th inning, when Auburn scored their two runs.
Lamented Bryson Ware: "We pride ourselves on timely hits, and the past few games, it just haven't been falling our way. Hit some balls on the screws, but we couldn't really make it fall or make it happen."
Ol' reliable Tommy Vail stumbled
Vail, who was one of the SEC's best pitchers in the back half of the conference schedule, was uncharacteristically gettable against Southern Miss. He gave up three homeruns in his four and a third innings, matching his season total (1 vs Arkansas, 2 vs Texas A&M). For the outing, Vail was charged with five runs (four earned) on four hits, with two walks and four strikeouts.
It's not his fault, and I don't want it to sound like I'm blaming Tommy Vail for the loss. Every pitcher has outings that are just...fine. This one was fine. Usually there's enough offense to compensate for an outing like this, but there wasn't today.
Thompson commented after the game that, analytically, Vail's arsenal looked like normal, but the results were different and they didn't really know why. "There's some things you just don't know."
So, what next for Auburn baseball?
Auburn's got a lot of moving parts to figure out over the coming days.
Transfer portal's open, and Auburn already has some players committed to transfer to The Plains. There's going to be movement out of the program, as well, including some surprise departures we aren't expecting.
Many of Auburn's veterans are out of eligibility, with program stalwarts like Kason Howell, Bryson Ware, and Bobby Peirce moving on. Some of Auburn's newcomers for this season were grad transfers, and so we knew that guys like Justin Kirby and Brody Wortham were one-and-dones. Some others are seniors who still have a "COVID year" because of the cancellation of the 2020 season, like Chase Isbell or Nate LaRue, so they could stay or go.
The MLB Draft is this summer, and any player who is three years removed from high school is eligible. There's some obvious names we know are going to be gone: SS Cole Foster is projected to be a Day 2 draft pick, as well as RHP Joseph Gonzalez. There's several others who could go, like Cooper McMurray (redshirt sophomore), and it'll be fascinating to see what Auburn does to backfill positions as players either declare for the draft or enter the portal.
And in the meantime, Auburn's got a top ten prep recruiting class to go work on. Having three Gatorade All-Americans in it, Thompson said that there'd be a lot of calls, video chats, and even some in-home visits as they looked to solidify those commitments in light of the pending MLB Draft.
We'll have everything for you, right here on Auburn Daily.
Thanks for coming along on the ride.