After losing a close Capital City Classic to Alabama on an error and dropping back down to .500 on the season, the Auburn baseball team rallied by going on a seven-game winning streak and earning their first SEC series win against No. 23 Texas A&M to improve to 13-7.
Head coach Sunny Golloway said he knows his team is headed in the right direction, but also has room for improvements.
"We are not even close to where we started," Golloway said after Dillon Ortman's complete-game shutout win pitching against Texas A&M on Friday, March 14. "We were out in the pasture. We can see the barn, but the hay is still not in it.
"But we're getting there. Our guys are all running in the right direction, so that makes it fun."
After Ortman led the Tigers to the game one win against the Aggies, freshman standout Keegan Thompson followed on the mound with a complete game of his own in their 5-2 win in game two to clinch the series.
Thompson had 10 strikeouts on the day and improved his record to a team-best 4-0 with a 0.69 earned run average.
"The first series win in the SEC is really big," Thompson said. "We would have liked to come out and swept them, but we just didn't come out with the same fire we had the first two games. We have to change that."
The Tigers could not complete the SEC series sweep and were shut out 9-0 on March 16 to end their seven-game winning streak.
"I don't fault our guys as much as I give (Texas A&M) credit," Golloway said. "I try to preach to them that these games are so important. You just don't want to have that letdown. We'll take two out of three, four out of five for the week and get ready for next week. It's a long journey."
After the Capital City Classic against Alabama and before the game-three loss against Texas A&M, the Tigers not only won seven consecutive games, but also improved on their hitting.
"Offensively, I think we are swinging the bat better," Golloway said after the 6-5 rematch win against Alabama State on March 12. "We are driving the ball. Our slugging percentage has really, really gotten better, and that's been big for us.
"Before, it was taking four or five singles to score a run."
Damek Tomscha and Jordan Ebert have been on a hot streak at the plate and gotten their numbers up during this turnaround.
Tomscha now leads the team in multiple categories with a .400 batting average, 18 RBIs, five home runs and a .764 slugging percentage for the season.
After a slow start to the season, Ebert has turned it around, finding his swing with a .350 batting average on 21 hits and 10 runs scored.
"We are really starting to believe we can do it in the locker room, and I think that makes the biggest difference," Ebert said.
Ebert also compared their recent turnaround to another turnaround on campus from earlier this year.
"You saw it with our football team," Ebert said. "They go in and have a lot of close games against below average to pretty good teams. As soon as they realized they were good enough to do it, that's where it changed.
"That's what is happening with this team. We are realizing we are pretty good."
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