After a close series win against Ole Miss, Auburn travels to Gainesville, Florida, to play the Florida Gators.
The Tigers are 3-3 on the road, and the Gators are 15-2 when playing at home and have won three straight at home after their loss to Missouri in March. Additionally, Auburn’s all-time away record is 5-24 against Florida and it has not won a series since 2005, when it swept the Gators at home.
Florida has lost back-to-back SEC series against South Carolina and Missouri, and it is ranked seventh in the conference rankings. In contrast, the Tigers are riding the momentum of winning their past two series; they swept Missouri and took two out of three against Ole Miss.
“The crowd really keeps your energy up, and you don’t have those long lulls,” said head coach Mickey Dean. “That’s the thing that you have to be able to handle on the road… At home, your crowd keeps you going, and on the road, you have to find it within yourself.”
Florida leads the SEC in batting average, on-base percentage and runs scored (261), with big hitters such as former All-SEC First Team member Skylar Wallace, who has a batting average of .432 and nine home runs — the same as Auburn’s Bri Ellis.
Wallace tallied a season-high three hits against South Carolina. Supporting Wallace’s offense, Kendra Falby leads the team in hits (44) and has a batting average of .407. Falby is also 14th in the nation in runs scored per game.
In contrast to their dynamic offense, the Gators have struggled in pitching, ranking last in the SEC in strikeouts and are third in hits allowed.
Auburn’s junior pitcher Maddie Penta has proven to a strong asset to the Tigers' defense — being named SEC Pitcher of the Week twice this year already. In SEC play, she has totaled 52 strikeouts and had a career-high 17 strikeouts against Missouri and pitched her fourth career shutout against Ole Miss. Auburn’s pitching rotation is the only one in the nation to record over 300 strikeouts this season.
“It has been a mental mindset... you have to approach every inning as though it's a 0-0 ball game and it's the seventh thing,” Dean said. “And that sounds so easy, you know, but it's not and it's a process. It's a rolling process. It's a maturity process.”
In addition to Penta’s pitching, the Tigers' defense has pitched 16 shutout games, ranking fourth in program history. First baseman Bri Ellis has not only proven herself to be a strong hitter, leading the team in home runs, but she also has played strong defense, with a fielding average of .998 and 159 putouts.
The Tigers travel to Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium for a three-game series beginning Thursday at 5 p.m. CST and is available on the SEC Network+ for all three games.
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
Amanda Davidson is a sophomore at Auburn, majoring in journalism and minoring in marketing and studio arts. From LaGrange, Ga., she started with The Plainsman in fall 2022.
Twitter: @Manny1Davidson
