Auburn softball will take on three teams this weekend in back-to-back-to-back doubleheaders as part of the Plainsman Invite.
The Tigers will take on Longwood and Southeast Missouri State on Friday, Longwood again and Northern Iowa on Saturday and finally Northern Iowa and Southeast Missouri State on Sunday, with all games starting at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. respectively.
Auburn will enter Friday with a 4-1-1 record and looking to extend its current win streak of three. Auburn, after a win against then-No. 13 Utah last week, is ranked No. 24 in the latest ESPN.com/USA Softball poll.
Auburn's first opponent of the weekend is the Longwood Lancers. Longwood will play Northern Iowa before playing Auburn on Friday. The Lancers have a lackluster record at 3-8 but have won two of their last three games after allowing over five runs in each of their first eight games.
Longwood is led by senior Lauren Fox who is batting .344 on the season and sophomore Sophia Knock who is batting .333. The Lancers only have one other player averaging over a .233 batting average, so they will need the bats to step up in order to keep pace with Auburn.
The Lancers have a team ERA of 6.23 and have allowed 15 home runs already this season. With only three pitchers getting any time on the mound, Auburn could be in for some big run totals against Longwood.
Auburn's second opponent of the weekend is Southeast Missouri State. The Redhawks have a 4-5 record but are coming off a 9-3 win versus Maryland. The Redhawks have been shutout or held under two runs in five of their last seven games.
SEMO does have three players batting above .300 with junior Aubrie Shore batting .444, freshman Brooklyn Saysoff hitting .333 and senior Kynzie Wrigley sitting at .304. Other than those three players, SEMO does not have another player above the .215-average mark.
The Redhawks pitching has been slightly below average to start the season with a team ERA of 4.85 and has allowed over seven runs four times already to start the season. Auburn will look to take advantage of a weak pitching staff in its two games against SEMO.
The Tigers final opponent is the Northern Iowa Panthers. Northern Iowa holds a 4-2 record, having been a pretty solid team to start the year. The Panthers have a team batting average of a modest .243 but have four players over the .250 mark.
Redshirt senior Madison Parks leads the team with a .500 batting average followed by redshirt senior Taylor Hogan and junior Addison McElrath both batting .389 and finally sophomore Kate Lappe with a .250 average.
The strength of the Panthers is their pitching with an impressive team ERA of 1.17. Redshirt Sophomore Anna Wischnowski has an ERA of 0.00 through 11.2 innings and redshirt senior Samantha Heyer has been impressive with a 0.33 ERA through 21.0 innings. Northern Iowa could be the toughest test for Auburn over the weekend and will need its bats to come up big in order to come away with two victories.
Auburn starts its doubleheader at Jane B. Moore Field Friday, playing at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. CST every day through Sunday for a total of six games. Saturday's games will be televised on SEC Network+.
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Luke McClure is a junior from Huntsville, Alabama, majoring in sports production. He joined The Plainsman in fall 2023.
Twitter: @lukemcclure0
