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Given Auburn's recent history, making it to Hoover was an improvement. Winning a game to get into the double-elimination portion of the tournament even more so. It's not much, but it's something.
Following the defeat of Kentucky on Tuesday afternoon, Auburn dropped a close one to LSU last night 9-8 in a game the Tigers could have won. Blowing two five run leads is just horrible. Most of LSU's runs came in one inning, while the Tigers scored early but could get nothing going late.
Today's game against Florida was the opposite. The Tigers' bats weren't doing much during the early portion of the game. In the latter part of the game the Tigers were getting some base runners, but were leaving them stranded. They did manage to pick up two runs late, but when you allow Florida to score 8 runs in the 3rd inning, then you're going to be in trouble. The Tigers ultimately fell 11-2.
You can't "take away" that inning, but when you look at the game as a whole it's hard to be too upset with Auburn's performance, today. This could easily have been a one-run game. Would Auburn have played it differently late if that were the case? Maybe. But reality is that 8 run inning happened, and big innings for the opponents have been an issue fo the Tigers, who have struggled to find effective, consistent pitching behind Lipscomb, Camp, and Keegan Thompson when he was healthy.
Auburn now awaits the NCAA Selection Show on Monday. Sunny Golloway seems certain that the Tigers are a lock. He even said exactly that in his post-game press conference. I think he's correct, but it's impossible to be 100% sure, since although the Tigers have a very good RPI, they didn't get the 14 SEC regular season wins that is normally one of the other thresholds considered for locking up a spot.
We'll do a full-up review of the season and the progress of Auburn baseball once the season is complete, but I'm curious what you, the readers, think. Is making an NCAA Regional for the first time since 2010 an improvement enough for you to feel good about the direction of Sunny Golloway's program? Let us know in the comments!