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A spirit that is not afraid

Auburn powers up for weekend showdown with top-10 Florida

<p>Samantha Yarbrough (1) throws a pitch against Delaware State on Feb. 26.&nbsp;</p>

Samantha Yarbrough (1) throws a pitch against Delaware State on Feb. 26. 

Following a 6-2 win over Alabama State on Wednesday, No. 17 Auburn (28-4) beefs back up for a three-game weekend series with No. 7 Florida (28-5).

Florida poses as Auburn’s second top-10 opponent this season. The first was a matchup with then-No. 3 UCLA, which resulted in a 9-0 loss for Auburn in six innings.

For the Gators, the Tigers are their third consecutive ranked matchup in the past week. They have won their past two, with a 10-3 win against No. 20 UCF on Wednesday after taking the last of a three-game set with No.14 Tennessee in Gainesville last weekend to avoid being swept.

Meanwhile, Auburn handled business in its most recent action at home versus Alabama State, but it also dropped two of three in its previous SEC series last weekend versus No. 12 Kentucky in Lexington. 

Auburn sandwiched its game two victory in between losses in the first and last games to lose the series. The Tigers looked outmatched in game one that the Wildcats won via mercy rule in six innings by a 11-3 margin, but they put up a 6-3 win the next day and gave the Wildcats a run for their money in a 5-4 Kentucky win in the series finale.

Auburn led 4-1 heading into the final frame against Kentucky, looking to win the series, but could not hold on. The Wildcats rallied for four runs with their backs to the wall to claim the series victory.

In their early-season success, the Tiger’s bats have had plenty of pop in them this season. 

The team blasted four home runs in their win on Wednesday to give them 54 total dingers on the campaign. That is a total that already blows last season’s total out of the water with still 22 games remaining on the regular-season schedule. The team combined to hit 22 long balls all of last season.

With 12 homers, freshman Bri Ellis leads the way for the Tigers in the category. She currently has three bombs in her last two games, and No. 77 also rides a three-game hitting streak into the series.

With 221 total runs this season, Florida has produced only one run fewer than Auburn, but it manufactures runs in a much different style. The Gators only have 26 home runs on the season, 28 fewer than the Tigers.

When it comes to pitching, these two squads have very successful, but, different, approaches.

For the Tigers, most of the workload has fallen on the shoulders of Maddie Penta. She has 105.1 of the pitching staff’s 208.2 IP that is only divided among four pitchers.

In her heavy workload, Penta leads the club in ERA (1.40) and wins (17). 

She has only suffered two losses this season, with the most recent being to Kentucky on Sunday. She entered that contest in the seventh inning and only faced two batters. The first was a single and the second was a three-run homer to walk it off for the Wildcats.

She also ranks top five in four program single-season pitching statistical categories: strikeouts per seven innings, opponent batting average, ERA and walks allowed per seven innings.

Penta had a bounce-back performance on Wednesday, as she allowed no base runners and struck out five over 3 IP before handing the ball to KK Dismukes, who worked from the circle for the remainder of the game.

On the other hand, Florida comes at its opponents with a variety of hurlers. Six different pitchers have seen action this season, and none of them have thrown more than 67.1 innings.

Each bringing in over 60 IP and leading the Gators with nine wins are Elizabeth Hightower and Lexie Delbrey, with ERAs of 1.87 and 2.37, respectively.

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Auburn has a chance to end its five-game losing streak versus Florida with a win and get its first victory over the Gators since 2005.

A series win would also give Auburn its third SEC series win in four such series’ this season.

The series will get started with a 6 p.m. CST first pitch on Friday, a 2 p.m. start on Saturday and the series wraps up with a 1 p.m. battle with the Gators on Sunday from Jane B. Moore field.


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