After being voted third in the Preseason Coaches' Poll, the Auburn softball team is meeting expectations.
The Tigers won 2-0 Saturday over Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne in the weekend's Tiger Invitational, putting the team's record at 3-0.
"What I've seen from them is their ability to do whatever it is that they have to do to get it done," said coach Tina Deese. "I think we need to work on communication, and I think we need to make sure that our defense is working on all cylinders."
The Tigers began the season with five games in four days at the Tiger Invitational and will continue play this weekend in the SEC/ACC/Big 12 Challenge.
Auburn will face Oklahoma State Friday, Oklahoma Saturday and Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech Sunday.
Because of the rapid-pace schedule, Deese said practice will have a different feel compared to preseason.
"At this point there's not a lot of room for doing a lot of things," Deese said. "Game situations especially, with the things we need to clean up on, we'll run some situations and make sure we're good there, but in terms of really playing game like stuff with singles, we probably won't do a whole lot."
Oklahoma State will come into Auburn ranked No. 15 in the country, returning six starters and three pitchers from the 2011 team that made an appearance at the Women's College World Series.
Of the returning pitchers, sophomore Morgan Hawkins had a 6-0 record in 2011, while junior Kat Espinosa finished last season 23-10.
Cowgirls coach Rich Wieligman said the nonconference play will be challenging.
"Our nonconference schedule is a tough lineup," Wieligman told the Cowgirls website. "We go down to Houston this weekend and they're ranked. The next weekend we go to Auburn and play Auburn, Alabama, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech. Three of those four were at a regionals last year."
Oklahoma also reached the championship last season, and Sooners coach Patty Gasso said this year's team has a chance to continue the success.
"For the first time in a long time everyone of them is on the same page," Gasso told Sooners athletics. "That's pretty cool from a coach's point of view. There's something special going on here.''
The Sooners return four pitchers from last year, including Michelle Gascoigne, who thew a perfect game and 99 strikeouts in 81.2 innings in 2011.
Oklahoma opened its season this year with four straight wins against CSU Bakersfield, UNLV, Weber State and Kent State.
With the Tigers facing both Oklahoma teams in back-to-back days, Deese said they need to improve in several areas.
"Offensively we've got to buckle up, too, because missing signals and not interpreting signals right--you know when you're trying to be a team that's going to hit and run, bunt and run, squeeze, do those kind of things--you've really got to make sure everybody is on the same page," Deese said.
The Hokies opened their season with three consecutive wins, and Georgia Tech upset No. 8 Arizona in its second game of the season.
The games Friday and Saturday will both begin at 3 p.m., and Sunday's two matchups, the first against Virginia Tech, will start at 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.
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