EDITOR'S NOTE: Below you'll find 1,000 words about the Auburn softball team. If you hate women's sports ($1 to @Weagle1492) or don't care one bit about Auburn softball, I strongly suggest you not take the time to read this. You have been warned.
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Not a great weekend for Auburn.
The Tigers won tight games at South Carolina on Friday and Saturday, which secured another series win, but went out with a whimper Sunday in a 3-0 loss.
And here's what I don't understand: This season, this team, isn't dovetailing with Clint Myers' vision. At all.
What do I mean? The Auburn coach has said all along that his blueprint involves pitching, defense and timely hitting. During his first season in 2014, Auburn was a good hitting team with good defense and so-so pitching. In 2015, Auburn was a very good hitting team with excellent defense and slightly above-average pitching. In 2016, Auburn was an elite hitting team with good defense and very good pitching.
Myers' fourth Auburn team, frankly, represents a major regression to this point. It has good (not great) pitching, the defense is just so-so in an SEC context and the hitting actually is poor overall.
Consider that the Tigers are last among SEC teams in batting average, though Auburn still ranks fifth in runs scored. That's largely due to the fact that Auburn leads the league in walks and is on par with the best teams in terms of double, triples and homers.
Auburn has the timely part down. The hitting part, though, remains a work in progress.
This team hit .158 against South Carolina this past weekend. That's 12-for-76 with seven walks and 11 strikeouts. And in case you're wondering, South Carolina is ranked 12th among the 13 SEC teams in earned run average. Auburn should have hit better, scored more often.
So what's going on? Here are the issues:
Auburn plays at Alabama State Wednesday night and plays host to a rapidly improving Mississippi State team this weekend. I'll be surprised if the Tigers don't snag their fifth consecutive series victory, sure, but I'll also be surprised if they remain focused throughout.
Teams can change. We've seen that happen before. Still, we're 47 games into this season and the same few problems keep limiting Auburn's ability to maximize itself.
**********
Not a great weekend for Auburn.
The Tigers won tight games at South Carolina on Friday and Saturday, which secured another series win, but went out with a whimper Sunday in a 3-0 loss.
And here's what I don't understand: This season, this team, isn't dovetailing with Clint Myers' vision. At all.
What do I mean? The Auburn coach has said all along that his blueprint involves pitching, defense and timely hitting. During his first season in 2014, Auburn was a good hitting team with good defense and so-so pitching. In 2015, Auburn was a very good hitting team with excellent defense and slightly above-average pitching. In 2016, Auburn was an elite hitting team with good defense and very good pitching.
Myers' fourth Auburn team, frankly, represents a major regression to this point. It has good (not great) pitching, the defense is just so-so in an SEC context and the hitting actually is poor overall.
Consider that the Tigers are last among SEC teams in batting average, though Auburn still ranks fifth in runs scored. That's largely due to the fact that Auburn leads the league in walks and is on par with the best teams in terms of double, triples and homers.
Auburn has the timely part down. The hitting part, though, remains a work in progress.
This team hit .158 against South Carolina this past weekend. That's 12-for-76 with seven walks and 11 strikeouts. And in case you're wondering, South Carolina is ranked 12th among the 13 SEC teams in earned run average. Auburn should have hit better, scored more often.
So what's going on? Here are the issues:
- Massive hole at second base. Look, nobody was expecting youngsters to replace Emily Carosone. The currently situation at second base is impossibly poor, though, with regular starter Casey McCrackin hitting .213 and posting a .933 fielding percentage. Freshman KK Crocker's fielding is slightly better, but she's hitting .167. This probably was supposed to be Kendall Veach's spot this season, granted, but it's not. As it stands, second base is a zero.
- Fairly big hole in left field. Again, nobody was expecting youngsters to replace Tiffany Howard, but Myers' choices out there — Morgan Podany (.211), Carmyn Greenwood (.203) and Whitney Jordan (.103) — are accomplishing almost nothing at the plate. At least the defense has been solid out there.
- Tannon Snow isn't playing this season. She's the transfer from Washington. She hit very well in the fall and was expected to hit 3rd or 4th. She was expected to start every game at first base. There was every reason to believe she'd be a run-producing star in the middle of Auburn's lineup. Instead, she's home in California with an undisclosed medical problem that requires methodical, long-term treatment. Everyone at Auburn expects Tannon Snow to return to school in August and basically take a do-over in 2018. She will be joined by her sister, Taylon Snow, an infielder who is the nation's top overall prospect.
- This team doesn't have the same ability to bear down under pressure. The 2015 and '16 teams had that ability. They had strong leadership from a variety of sources — girls who made things happen when things needed to happen. I'm talking about Carosone, Howard, Rhodes, Branndi Melero, Morgan Estell, Kasey Cooper. Lots of high-caliber players with intense personalties. Now it's Cooper, who is enduring a difficult senior season, and catcher Carlee Wallace. This team seems soft. It seems willing to go where the wind blows. On Sunday when South Carolina moved ahead early, I was expecting to see the Tigers summon some gumption, some semblance of spark. Yet we saw nothing. There was no spark. The great teams can flip a switch and start raising hell, so to speak. Those teams might not win every game they trail 3-0, but they refuse to go out with a two-hit shutout. Still, that's exactly how this team went out Sunday. And it happens once per weekend.
- The Corey Myers factor. The Tigers' No. 2 coach resigned a few weeks back to spend more time with his family. That's what the announcement said. A handful of observers have spoken privately with me about how Corey Myers' resignation has affected the team. I get six different views, of course, but there are commonalities. People are disappointed in Corey Myers. People believe his decision to leave has created (or widened) social crevasses that are creating resistance. There was little resistance in 2014, '15 or '16. I wouldn't say the team's chemistry is wrecked, but it's not great. I just don't see the same kind of spirit we saw during past season. The team that played in Columbia last weekend looked to me like a group going through the motions. Do they know something we don't? Are they less confident with Corey Myers no longer running the pitching show? Considering Auburn swept Georgia in the days after Corey Myers' resignation and that ace pitcher Kaylee Carlson remains one of the nation's best pitchers, well, things look fine from an operational standpoint. Yet something is amiss with this team. That's undeniable.
Auburn plays at Alabama State Wednesday night and plays host to a rapidly improving Mississippi State team this weekend. I'll be surprised if the Tigers don't snag their fifth consecutive series victory, sure, but I'll also be surprised if they remain focused throughout.
Teams can change. We've seen that happen before. Still, we're 47 games into this season and the same few problems keep limiting Auburn's ability to maximize itself.
