Sports

The Auburn baseball team lost last weekend’s three-game series with No. 11 Vanderbilt, winning game one, but losing the last two.

The Tigers, which now sit at fourth place in the SEC West at 7-11, were leading 5-3 in the seventh inning Friday before the game was suspended due to rain. The game resumed at noon Saturday as the Tigers won 6-3.

The Tigers were drowned in the second game as the Commodores scored four runs in the eighth inning in the 8-2 defeat.

Auburn Equestrian Team

The Auburn equestrian team won its first National Championship title in the Hunt Seat in Waco, Texas, Saturday. The Tigers defeated second-seed Texas A&M 5-2 at the 7th annual Varsity Equestrian National Championship.

This time four years ago, I was a happy-go-lucky senior at Lake Worth High School in south Florida. Graduation was still weeks away, I already received and acceptance letter from Auburn University and I was concerned with nothing more than having a good time with my friends at the beach before going our separate ways that August.

Now, I’m a happy-go-lucky senior at Auburn, absolutely petrified about the events the upcoming weeks entail.

Clay Messer and Jackson Bonner: hold their catches Saturday at the Southeastern Bass Series on Weiss Lake. They placed first in the head-to-head competition with 12.44 pounds. Faulkner University followed in second place, and UAB came in third. Jessica Chesnut / PHOTO STAFF

The Auburn Bass Team took first place last Saturday at the Southeastern Collegiate Bass Series on Weiss Lake in both the head-to-head competition and the invitational.  

The team is made up of members of the Auburn Bass Sports Club, a provisional club that will become an official Auburn sports club in fall 2008.

Six individuals — Jake DeBin, a junior in liberal arts; Jackson Bonner, a senior in history; Clay Messer, a senior in biosystems engineering; Dennis Parker, a junior in building science; Richard Peek, a junior in poultry science and criminology; and Sam Rochell, a junior in poultry science — out of 30 club members qualified to compete in the Southeastern Collegiate Bass Series.

The series was sponsored by American Rodsmiths and hosted by Auburn University.

Nine teams competed alongside Auburn in the five fish limit tournament, including Mississippi State, Tennessee, Georgia Southern, Virginia Tech, UAB, Montevallo, Ole Miss, Troy University and Faulkner.

Auburn placed first in the head-to-head competition with 23.35 pounds.  

Faulkner was second with 17.39 pounds, third was UAB with 16.90 pounds, fourth was Mississippi State with 15.58 pounds and fifth was Virginia Tech with 8.76 pounds.

Auburn able to get by South Carolina in quarterfinals, lose to No. 1 ranked Florida Gators

Fani Chifchieva: returns a serve at the Yarborough Tennis Center courts Saturday against Florida. Anthony Hall / AUBURN UNIVERSITY

Auburn couldn’t find a way to get out of the quarterfinals of the SEC Women’s Tennis Tournament Saturday, losing to the Florida Gators 4-0.

The Tigers advanced to the quarterfinals beating South Carolina 4-0 Friday.

SEC Athlete of the Year, Auburn’s Fani Chifchieva, defeated the Gamecock’s Gira Schofield 6-4, 6-3 in their match Friday at the Yarborough Tennis Center.

A sophomore from Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Chifchieva finished the regular season 21-2 in singles matches along the way to winning SEC Athlete of the Year.

“It was a great effort today against a very solid South Carolina team,” said Auburn head coach Tim Gray. “The team took care of business.”

Whitney Chappell clinched the victory against South Carolina, beating Suzanne Mansour 6-3, 6-3.

Tigers rally to climb four spots in final round as Alabama wins SEC Tournament

The Auburn men’s golf team competed in the 2008 Southeastern Conference tournament last weekend and tied with Mississippi State for eighth place on the 72-par Frederica Golf Club.

The eighth place finish was after advancing four-spots in the final round Sunday, surpassing Arkansas, Kentucky and Vanderbilt, making head coach Mike Griffin proud of his team.

NFL fans will get an early look at the future of their favorite franchises as the NFL Draft begins Saturday, April 25 at 2 p.m. on ESPN. Former Auburn standouts Quentin Groves, DE; Patrick Lee, CB and Pat Sims, DT have been projected as first day picks.

1. Dolphins - Chris Long, DE, Virginia
Great motor and a game-changer. A good pedigree (Howie Long’s son) doesn’t hurt.
2. Rams - Jake Long, OT, Michigan
The Rams need to shore up their O-Line in a bad way, Long is a big step in the right direction.
3. Falcons - Matt Ryan, QB, Boston College;

TORONTO — The Toronto Blue Jays have released former Auburn Tiger Frank Thomas. The team said the deal with the 19-year veteran  was “of mutual consent.” Thomas, now a designated hitter, has been slumping lately.

CINCINNATI — Bengals linebacker Odell Turman has been reinstated by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Thurman missed the 2006 and 2007 season for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy.

Well, here we are: two weeks into the Major League Baseball season and I’m already ranting about the Braves.

This ranting won’t be necessarily negative, however.

I’ll start with the plainly obvious strength of our team: starting pitching.

John Smoltz has been, well, John Smoltz. The seasoned veteran has played lights out, boasting a 2-0 record and a staggering 0.82 ERA.

Freshman left fielder Trent Mummey: slides into third base against South Carolina. The No. 10-ranked Gamecocks came into Plainsman Park and took all three games from Auburn. Auburn had a three game winning streak coming into the weekend series. Kyle Cooper / ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR

South Carolina came into Plainsman Park last weekend with its bats in tow.

The No. 10 ranked Gamecocks (8-6, 24-10) lineup tore up Auburn (6-8, 22-14) pitching scoring a combined 22 runs in the three game sweep of the Tigers.

The Gamecocks were led by big bopper Justin Smoak who set the South Carolina record for career home runs Friday night off Grant Dayton, the 49th for the junior first baseman.

Smoak and the rest of the Gamecock lineup had Auburn’s outfielders reversing their field and racing toward the outfield fence most of the weekend.

“Credit South Carolina. Every time we made a mistake on the mound they hammered it,” coach Tom Slater said. “Any time we made a mistake defensively, they took advantage of it.”

South Carolina came into the weekend leading the SEC in home runs and only padded its lead, going yard seven times — four of which came Saturday night as Auburn and South Carolina combined for six home runs in the 8-6 defeat.

While Auburn pitching couldn’t hold the Gamecocks’ offense down, Auburn’s offense didn’t back down, scoring six runs in each game of the series.