Auburn softball won its first SEC series of the season with a 3-1 win over Texas A&M on Sunday. "Today, we had some nice timely hits," Dean said. "We made them make adjustments and that opened some things up for us."
“It’s more downhill, more attacking the defense,” Shivers said. “I feel like that is more our style here, as running backs. That’s what I do, run downhill. This is what best fits me.”
Auburn dropped the second game of its three-game series against Mississippi State on Saturday, losing 7-2. “Jack was great last week," said head coach Butch Thompson. “I thought both days here we just threw a couple of bad pitches, and they hit them and launched them.”
Sam Armas became the first player in Auburn wheelchair basketball history to score 1,000 career points last season, but he said the team is still fighting for respect and exposure on campus.
With everyone returning, Auburn's offensive line is starting to get more comfortable. “I feel good about this group,” Tashawn Manning said. “We got a bunch of hard workers. We are going to get this thing done.
Linebacker Chandler Wooten is taking advantage of opportunities in spring practice after opting out of the 2020 season because of COVID-19 concerns. "I’m not where I want to be yet, so I’m trying to get better every day,” Wooten said.
Auburn football head coach Bryan Harsin announced Saturday that tight end J.J. Pegues is moving to the defensive line. "I think the position for J.J. is going to be a good fit," Harsin said.
“Another tough, tough game where we battled to the end," said head coach Butch Thompson. "We came from behind and tied the ballgame, and then pretty unfortunate how we wound up giving up the winning run to Mississippi State tonight.”
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.
