Auburn bounced back from a three-game skid with a 6-2 win over No. 25 Texas A&M in College Station, Texas, on Friday. “It was a good start,” said head coach Mickey Dean. "Our first three or four batters did a real nice of working the counts and seeing a lot of pitches."
Auburn and head coach Bruce Pearl received some good news on Friday as Eastern Kentucky guard Wendell Green Jr. committed. Green averaged 15.8 points, five assists and 3.4 rebounds per game as a freshman at EKU.
The last time Auburn and Mississippi State met on the baseball diamond was in Omaha, Nebraska, in the 2019 College World Series. “I don’t think we’re looking for revenge. We’re looking to play a great series,” Thompson said.
Jeff Schmedding inherited a talented tandem of Zakoby McClain and Owen Pappoe when he came to Auburn as the inside linebackers coach. He's seen them, and the group as a whole "buy-in" during the spring.
“That opportunity to come back home has been really fulfilling,” Etheridge said. “You come here to sacrifice. You sacrifice everything about what you do. For me, coming back was just like, I get an opportunity to serve guys that have only watched me play in the past.”
Character, chemistry, and consistency are big themes for Auburn’s new offensive line coach, Will Friend. “Obviously, you want to find the five best players and to do that you’ve got to get to where you can put some guys in different spots to see who those best five are," Friend said.
“From a talent level, we have the guys,” Williams said. “The biggest thing for us is going to be putting in the work, time and effort to be extremely detailed and to work to be the best we can possibly be.”
Auburn introduced its new women's basketball head coach on Monday, welcoming Johnnie Harris as the seventh head coach in program history. "It just felt like home," Harris said. "Everybody just speaks with so much passion, so much love for this University."
The Johnnie Harris era has officially begun for Auburn women’s basketball. “Our culture is gonna be one of dignity, of trust, of loyalty, one of hard work,” Harris said.
Auburn’s running back room is thin right now, as they only have three scholarship running backs currently on campus, but coach Cadillac Williams is still excited about his group.
After taking a 5-0 lead into the bottom of the sixth inning, Auburn conceded five runs in the final four innings before losing the game on a walk-off in the 10th.
"It feels really great," Houchin said. "I was just really happy to be able to spend it with my team. Those are the people that mean the most to me, my teammates. I know they all played really hard for me and Dani today, so it was really good to go out with a win."
Auburn was unable to avoid the sweep against Arkansas, losing 2-0 on Saturday. “You gotta be clean against a top-10 team.” said head coach Mickey Dean. “It’s highly unlikely that you’ll beat a top-10 team with three [errors].”
Johnnie Harris has been named Auburn's new women's head basketball coach, athletic director Allen Greene announced on Saturday. Harris has 16 years of SEC experience as an assistant and was named the 2018 WBCA National Assistant Coach of the Year.
Auburn lost 6-5 to No. 1 Arkansas on Friday after leading 4-0 through the first six innings. “I tip my hat to Arkansas,” said Auburn head coach Butch Thompson. “To beat the No. 1 team, you have to play a complete game, and they got us there in the seventh inning.”
Auburn softball lost 3-0 on Friday to Arkansas. Despite the loss, pitcher Shelby Lowe finished the game with 12 strikeouts, moving her total to 111 on the season, good for fourth-most by an Auburn freshman.
Sharife Cooper announced on Friday that he is entering the 2021 NBA Draft and will not return to Auburn. Cooper played in 12 games for the Tigers and averaged 20.2 points and 8.1 assists in 33 minutes per game. At the end of the season, he was named to the SEC's All-Freshman team by the conference's coaches.
Facing the No. 1 team in the country in Arkansas, Cody Greenhill turned in a three-hit outing over seven innings on the mound for Auburn in a 2-1 victory. “It is big time,” Greenhill said. “The offense stepped up. The defense played out of their mind. Brody Moore made great plays, all around. It was definitely a team win.”
“I knew Maddie was going to be limited on the number of pitches,” Dean said. “I knew that even before I started her today or made that decision. So when we reached that point, that’s when I made the decision to take her out.”
