Maddie Penta named SEC co-Freshman of the Week
On Monday, Auburn pitcher Maddie Penta was named SEC co-Freshman of the Week after pitching a no-hitter Saturday and striking out 13 over her two starts.
On Monday, Auburn pitcher Maddie Penta was named SEC co-Freshman of the Week after pitching a no-hitter Saturday and striking out 13 over her two starts.
Gus Malzahn will be back on the sidelines this fall. On Monday, Malzahn was announced as the next head coach at the University of Central Florida.
“It’s tough to win a game giving up 92 points,” said Auburn head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy. “We gotta play better defense.”
Makenna Dowell and Maddie Penta led the way for Auburn as they completed the sweep of Southeast Missouri State Sunday. The Tigers pulled out a 3-1 victory and are 3-0 to start the season.
Behind a no-hitter from freshman Maddie Penta in the opener and a four-run sixth inning in the second game, Auburn opened up the 2021 season on Saturday with a pair of wins.
u201cVery disappointing,u201d said head coach Bruce Pearl. u201cYou canu2019t give up 52 points in a half and expect to win a basketball game, let alone making history. Kentucky made shots. They outplayed us and as a result, they get the victory.u201d
Auburn gymnastics may have lost to Missouri on Friday, but Auburn still walked away with two event titles and a season-high road score in the loss.
“There are no excuses here. We take advantage of the opportunities,” Pearl said. “We play Kentucky on CBS. CBS put this game on a Saturday. There are a lot of other good SEC games, but they wanted Auburn vs. Kentucky, alright can we take advantage of it.”
“We’re getting better every day,” Rivera said. “We’re showing up to practice and we’re leaving knowing something we didn’t know when we got there. Every day we’re just striving to be the best athletes we can be and be the best team out there. We’re here with a chip on our shoulder and we’re going to prove ourselves right.”
“It was a great meet last Friday,” said head coach Jeff Graba. “I thought the energy level was really good. We’ve been pushing really hard to give a lot of opportunities for girls and I feel like it’s paying off now. We’re a pretty deep team and we’re a really talented team."
On Thursday, the SEC released its 2021 Baseball Preseason Coaches Poll along with its first and second-teams all-SEC. Auburn was picked to finish sixth in the SEC west; Rankin Woley and Ryan Bliss were selected to the first-team all-SEC.
Despite another double-double by Unique Thompson, Auburn was defeated 74-54 by Georgia Thursday night.
Auburn makes the trip to Athens, Georgia, on Thursday to face its fourth Top 25 team in its last five games.
Auburn baseball is looking to increase its pitching stamina and depth at catcher ahead of its first game of the season next Friday.
Jamal Johnson and Sharife Cooper both scored 19 points to help Auburn take down Vanderbilt 73-67 on Tuesday night.
On Tuesday, Derrian Gobourne was named SEC Specialist of the Week following her performance against No. 2 LSU last Friday. She’s the first Auburn gymnast to earn a Gymnast of the Week honor this season.
Despite a career-day from Honesty Scott-Grayson on Sunday, Auburn could not contain Missouri's offense in the 85-75 loss. “Our defense wasn’t there,” Williams-Flournoy said. “Missouri is a very good offensive team, but to give up 85 points was just way too many.”
With 13 seconds left in overtime and Auburn down by three, Sharife Cooper's 3-pointer hit the rim and bounced up in the air. Silence fell over the crowd as the ball hovered around the rim before bouncing and falling through the net to tie the game. Auburn Arena erupted in cheers, which was soon followed by silence when Ole Miss point guard Devontae Schuler knocked down a game-winning jumper as time expired.
“They're No. 2 (in the SEC) in forcing turnovers, so we have historically turned it over against them,” Pearl said. “They get a lot of offense out of their defense. We’ve got to be locked in defensively.”
“I’m pretty happy with the girls, we still have a lot of young people that are finding their feet out there, but I’m really proud with the way they handled it,” said head coach Jeff Graba. “First 197 in almost two years, pretty big deal for me."