With the SEC Tournament in the rearview-mirror, it is time to take a look back at the season that was and preview the postseason. Auburn finished the season at 33-23 and 13-17 in SEC play which was good enough for a 7th place finish in the SEC West. Many fans, like my father, think the season was a disappointment, and an end to what was a historically bad sports year for Auburn across the board.The season did have some highlights though and was not the complete wash that some think. Auburn managed to make its way back into Hoover for the for the 4th consecutive year but lost to Alabama in the first round on Tuesday 6-3 to be eliminated for the tournament. With a RPI (as of Tuesday) of 32, Auburn still has a strong chance to make a NCAA Regional. The reports that the JABA team were able to see have Auburn going to one of two places as of Tuesday night. Auburn could be a number two seed in the Clemson Regional along with host Clemson, #3 Campbell, and #4 Columbia. This would be the better of the two regionals that we saw. The second prediction we saw was the Chapel Hill Regional, Auburn would again be the number two seed. This would be the harder of the two as host North Carolina could be a top seed overall. Joining them listed was 4th seed UNC-Wilmington, and 3rd seed Rider, who is out of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. With all that said, it will take improvements from Auburn before the start of the tournament for it to even make a difference.
This season was one of many ups and downs throughout the year. Over the course of the 2013 season Auburn managed to strand 452 runners on base. While opponents only stranded 399 this year. The struggles this season seemed to come on the road as the Tigers went 9-10 away from Plaisman Park. Much to the surprise of me, Auburn went 22-12 at home which is a good 10 game clip above .500. Auburn even managed to pull out a 2-1 neutral site record. The lone loss was Tuesday in Hoover. Auburn as a team this past season had a combined batting average of .275 which ranked them 8th in the SEC. Auburn also finished the season as a team with a total of 31 homeruns (5th SEC) and 243 runs batted in (10th SEC). Senior Garrett Cooper had another great season for the Tigers as he followed up his solid first year at Auburn by leading the team this season in hitting, homeruns, and runs batted in. Cooper hit .354 this past season with 7 homeruns, and 37 RBIs. Cullen Wacker, another senior Tiger fans have grown to know and love, was second this past season hitting .320 with two homeruns and 34 RBIs. Damek Tomscha, tied with Cooper this past season in homeruns as well as hit .274 and was the only position player for Auburn to be name SEC Player of the Week for his stellar weekend against Ole Miss. Pitching seemed to be as hit or miss this season as hitting did at times. Auburn ranked near the middle or the bottom of every pitching category in the SEC.The Tigers ranked dead last in strikeouts with only 314 as well as finished 7th in runs allowed with 181. Auburn had a team ERA this year of 3.36 which was middle of the pack in a very deep SEC. Opponents only hit .250 against Auburn pitching which would rank Auburn 6th. They were near the top in saves with 18 which was good enough to tie for 4th in the SEC. Michael O’Neal was a shot in the arm to the Auburn pitching rotation as he filled the Saturday starter role perfectly. O’Neal lead the Tigers in wins this season with an 8-2 record, he also posted a 2.73 ERA with 2 complete games.Conner Kendrick was the “ace” of the staff this season. His team low ERA of 2.13 and team leading strikeouts of 75 showed why he was the Friday night man. Terrance Dedrick, the newcomer from Shelton State, was the stopper in the 9th leading the team in saves with 10. The defense behind the pitching this past season was like throwing gas on a fire as Auburn was 10th in fielding with a .970%, as well as having 64 errors to be 4th in the SEC.
In the eyes of JABA, Auburn will have ended up doing just enough to not make the tourney no matter how well they finished down the stretch. Even if they where to make the tournament, it would just save the job of Coach Pawlowski which it could be better to miss out this year and be able to cut the ties. Now Auburn must play the waiting game to see if the Tigers can make their first Regional since 2010. We will find out Monday at Noon EST on ESPN if or where Auburn will be playing. With that said, we will dive more into the hot or coldness of Coach Pawloski’s seat and see what Jay Jacobs should do with him in our next post. War Eagle! -JABA
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