The Auburn Tigers had a rather agonizing week on the diamond last week, as they went 1-3 with losses at UAB and a series falter at home to Texas A&M.
In those three losses to the Blazers and Aggies, there was one constant: pitching.
In Tuesday’s midweek game at UAB, Auburn starter [autotag]Konnor Copeland[/autotag] managed to just grab 0.2 innings of work while allowing four runs on four hits. Auburn went on to use seven pitchers in the 6-5 loss that ended in walk-off fashion.
Then, in the weekend opener, Texas A&M chipped away at Auburn’s 5-2 lead by scoring seven runs over the final six innings to win, 9-5. Due to the weather forecast on Saturday, Auburn and Texas A&M was forced to play a doubleheader on Friday. The Tigers managed to win the middle game of the series before dropping the finale, 12-6.
Mark Etheridge of D1Baseball highlighted Auburn’s pitching in his weekly series titled SEC Weekend Dish, where he highlighted a note from Auburn’s doubleheader on Friday.
Over the 18 innings, Auburn walked 25 Texas A&M batters and threw 433 pitches. Add that on top of the final two games of last weekend’s series, where it walked nine and 13, and there’s a scarcity of strikes being thrown for Auburn.
Etheridge also shared Auburn’s starter’s distances and says that Auburn’s bullpen is not deep enough to handle more than seven innings of work. He also points out that the Tigers are now 1-6-1 in series finales this season to this point.
The Tigers will hit the road this weekend to face the Alabama Crimson Tide in a pivotal SEC weekend series for both teams. Alabama recently dropped a series to Mississippi State at home and has yet to win an SEC series this season.
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