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A spirit that is not afraid

Auburn heads to Lexington for ranked matchup with Kentucky

<p>Neila Peralta (13) stands by her base in the Plainsman Invite on Feb. 26.&nbsp;</p>

Neila Peralta (13) stands by her base in the Plainsman Invite on Feb. 26. 

After winning its second SEC series in as many tries this past weekend, No. 18 Auburn is set to take on No. 13 Kentucky in Lexington for its first ranked conference series of the season. 

Auburn rallied back to take the final two games of the South Carolina series after dropping the first game to the Gamecocks in extra innings. Auburn did not have a mid-week game, so this will be the first action it has seen since the South Carolina series. 

In that three game span, the Tigers scored 22 runs and collected 27 hits. 16 of those 22 runs came via the home run, of which Auburn has a season total of 45. Those 45 home runs through the first 28 games is the most by a Tiger team since the 2015 squad, who hit for 53 home runs through the first 28 games. 

Kentucky has been battle tested as of late.

took on the No. 1 Oklahoma Sooners on Tuesday, March 22. It lost that game with a final score of 9-1. The Wildcats’ last SEC contest was an away series against the No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide, which they dropped 2-1. Kentucky stormed back to take the last game from Alabama to prevent a sweep.

Against tough Oklahoma and Alabama pitching staffs, Kentucky recorded 14 combined runs over four contests. Nine of those runs came from the game-three win over Alabama. 

Players to Watch

Auburn:

Jessie Blaine

After being reigned as SEC Freshman of the Week for her clutch performances against South Carolina, Blaine has filled the role as the designated player so far this season. 

She is looking to continue her hot hitting in Lexington. Over the three-game series against the Gamecocks, Blaine collected eight RBIs and three walks while hitting for a .444 batting average. 

She was as clutch of a hitter as can be versus South Carolina. She slammed a game-tying three-run home run in the extra-inning loss on Saturday and followed up the next day with another three-run blast to walk it off in game two and give Auburn a chance to win the series.

Pitching staff 

At some point, the pitching staff will have to get more versatile and utilize other pitchers besides sophomore Maddie Penta. KK Dismukes has been huge for Auburn as of late, but Shelby Lowe has looked a little shaky in SEC play.

Penta is quite the workhorse. She also leads her team in innings pitched (95.1). No one else has worked over 62 innings. Fatigue will come into play, though, if she is consistently overworked.

Even though Penta suffered a loss in her extra-inning outing on Saturday, effectively snapping her perfect record so far this season, she is still looking like the most dominant pitcher on this Auburn staff with a 16-1 record. Penta leads the SEC in both strikeouts (143) and wins (16) and will be looking to better those numbers against a formidable Kentucky lineup.

Kentucky:

Erin Coffel

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Sophomore Erin Coffel had an impressive showing in Kentucky’s series loss to Alabama. She collected four hits, two walks and three RBIs for a .444 batting average. While going 0-3 against Oklahoma on Tuesday, Coffel will be looking to recreate the same SEC success, but this time at her home field. 

Miranda Stoddard

The duel-threat pitcher and third baseman for Kentucky also had a good weekend against Alabama. Stoddard went 4-for-8 with three RBIs and a walk to hit for .500 over the weekend. 

Even though she earned the loss in game two of the Alabama series and the game against Oklahoma, she is a versatile player that Auburn will more than likely see in the circle this weekend. 

Situational hitting is going to be key for the Tigers, as they have been able to string together frequent base hits as of late, but they still rely on many runs to come from the long ball. They hit nine in the series versus South Carolina. 

On the other side of things, Kentucky is looking to minimize the home runs, as it gave up six to Oklahoma. 

Timely hits will also be key for the Wildcats as missed opportunities in the Alabama series came back to haunt them in their losses. 

Auburn’s first matchup against a ranked team since its loss to UCLA on Feb. 19 will begin on Friday, March 25, at 5 p.m. CST. Games two and three on Saturday and Sunday will both start at 12 p.m. CST. The Friday and Sunday games will be broadcasted on SEC Network-plus while the game on Saturday will be broadcasted on SEC Network. 


Emily Porch | Sports Writer

Emily Porch is a senior from Sylacauga, Alabama. She joined The Plainsman in fall 2021.

Twitter: @emilycporch


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