Link sAUsage: 6 June 2016

First, a reminder of what happened 72 years ago today:

Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Forces:

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944. Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned. The free men of the world are marching together to victory.

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory.

Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

GOLF

Former Tiger golfer Dominic Bozzelli won his first WebDotCom Tour tournament, yesterday. Auburn has had a good run of players doing well on that tour and then moving up to the PGA Tour the last few years. Patton Kazzire was the money leader last year on the WebDotCom Tour.

SOFTBALL

The Tigers had quite the dramatic game Saturday night against Georgia. After jumping up 1-0 early, Auburn fell behind 3-1 and it came down to the 7th inning. For the third time in four games against the Bulldogs in 2016, Auburn staged a late rally to pull out the win.

ESPN had a feature on Auburn and Oklahoma once both teams advanced to the semifinals.

What would Auburn sports be without serious heart burn and stress, though? Auburn went into the Top 7th with a 3-run lead and a chance to close the game out, but FSU hit a 3-run home run of their own to tie it up. After Auburn couldn't get any runs in the 7th and FSU went scoreless in the Top 8th, the Tigers were able to pull off the 8-7 walk-off win to advance to the Championship Series. Here are the highlights from the game if you missed any of them.

Draper's spectacular diving catch was #1 on Sports Center's Top 10 plays last night, by the way:

#SCTop10 Plays of the Night? Nah, we'll take the No. 1 spot (And No. 9 as well) #WarEagle pic.twitter.com/jKWrDJkVOa

— Auburn Softball (@Auburn_Softball) June 6, 2016

With Oklahoma defeating LSU, Auburn will now face the Sooners in the Best of 3 Championship Series. You can see our How to Watch/Preview published early this morning right here. If you're in Auburn, you'll be able to watch the series from Jane B Moore Field on the video board.

Here's ESPN's video preview for the Championship Series.

FOOTBALL

Big Cat Weekend was going on this weekend on the Plains and it turned out pretty well for the Tigers, as they added two commitments to the 2017 recruiting class. The first was 4* DB/ATH Malcolm Askew. The second was the nation's #1 JUCO RB Octavius Matthews. I'd say that was pretty successful, wouldn't you?

Here's the official site's write-up on Big Cat Weekend that was published Friday before the recruits started arriving. The annual event has become a big deal for Auburn, where they bring in players and have fun with them for a day or two.