It's the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. trash talk chat. You also get an ad-free version of your favorite locked on show and a whole lot more. You can check it out by tapping the everyday or club link in the show notes. The Auburn Tigers dominate Nebraska. They win the series. You are locked on Auburn, your daily podcast on the Auburn Tigers, Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Yes, welcome on in to Locked On Auburn, your daily Auburn Tigers podcast. I'm your host, Zach Blackerby, and thank you so much for making Locked On Auburn your first listen every single day. Baseball's Lindsey Crosby. You can find his baseball coverage over at TheBarAndAuburn.com for college baseball. He covers all of it. More on that in a bit. Auburn blast Nebraska 12 to three after run ruling them in game two yesterday. There was a lot of panic, Lindsay, Friday night. We said, hold on, hold on. And, you know, they lose in extras on Friday, but they dominate every single inning essentially after that. And you could tell, like, pitching depth mattered. The bats showed up and were relentless. this was a series that Auburn controlled it throughout without, you know, with the exception of maybe an inning or two on Friday. Yeah. And I talked to a lot of the guys yesterday, kind of, you know, after the game, getting their, their thought process on what happened on Friday. And the players were really frustrated on Friday because they knew that like, Hey, you know, we had a lead. The bullpen gave it up. And sometimes that happens and the offense needed to be better than they were to one, continue scoring runs and keep the team into it. And then to have the at-bats they need to have late. Lindsay, I'm sorry. Breaking news here. Nebraska just walked another Auburn batter. That's, that's what they've been doing. And, and that's, I asked Butch a similar question about that too. Right. I asked him about, you know, they used, let's think of seven pitchers in game one. They used six pitchers in game two, despite only seven innings. Like that was not a scheduled bullpen game. We just knocked their starter out so early. And then you look at today, Nebraska used eight more guys today. And this is what the Auburn offense does, right? Like this is what these guys are trying to do. Yes, they're trying to put balls in play. They're trying to cause damage, you know, crooked numbers on the board, get the kill shots and all that stuff. But they're also trying to get your starter out of the game as soon as possible. Right. Because, you know, and this is a strategy that is replicable in the SEC. I remember the year where Paul Skeens was at LSU and was drafted number one overall. And if I remember right, he started a Friday night game against Auburn, and Auburn won that game. Now, they didn't do anything against Paul Skeens. He went seven and a third innings with no runs on six hits. But Auburn got him out of the game. And, you know, and the Tigers ended up like taking down some really good teams on the weekend with that strategy. Yeah, sure. Maybe their Friday night guy, Auburn's Friday night guy, wasn't to the same caliber of a Paul Skeens, who was a number one overall pick and some of that stuff. But they could get them out of the game. They could get into the bullpen, get innings on and then games two and three. you'd have some run rule victories you'd have a game like sunday where nebraska uh drew four walks offensively issued 12 walks as a pitching staff ridiculous yeah and i'm absolutely insane that's the strategy here and we saw it work out so uh you know shout out to randall from friday night from the the live show kind of being panicked about auburn losing at home they came back they won the next two in dominant fashion. Yeah, they definitely did. They definitely did. And different guys stepped up, right? I mean, we talked about this, or really you talked about it when we reacted to it on Friday night about the McCrane brothers. And then that was kind of like the TV broadcast talking point. Following that was how great they've been. And you've been talking about it really since the season started. And you saw that really since, I mean, you saw it Friday too, but you saw it really all weekend. and you're seeing different parts of this lineup now starting to get comfortable. It not just Bristol Carter It not just Freilich It not just Bub Terrell You starting to see the full lineup which is what we thought would happen It didn happen from game one but they are starting to get comfortable now Yeah. Mason McCrane drove in six on, on Saturday, which is that good? It's a pretty good weekend in conference, like in, in baseball, nevermind a single game. Right. He had another RBI today, by the way, too. So, I mean, he's driven in like, you know, like eight guys this weekend. But we saw, one, you got Chris Rembert back. And even though you had to find another lineup spot, you didn't really get weaker anywhere because you have these guys. Not only did they step up, they can play multiple positions, right? Brandon McCrane moved from second to third because Chris Rembert was back for game two. Butch originally told us he didn't think they were going to do all three games for Chris. Chris felt really good. they put him out there he appeared to be he's not 100 but he appeared to be moving okay he looks pretty good i mean especially today i thought he looked even more crisp today than he did on friday he did go first to third today on a batted ball which was the first time we've really seen him open it up like he's hit ground he's hit ground balls and had to get to first base but for the most part he was actually able to you know open it up go first to third and look good there but not 100 but he's pretty close but yeah you put Brandon McCrane at third Lucas Steele always catches for Alex Petrovic who got the win today he's 3-0 by the way and so you put Chase Freilich at first that let you take Ethan Bingaman and give him his pitching debut on the mound in the final inning I mean the depth on this team is very enviable and so far Auburn is winning the bet that we can sacrifice a little bit of defense to get more offense in the lineup on an everyday basis they're winning that bet so far brandon mccrane just pointing it out just pointing out batting 533 on the season feels like that feels like that's good that's pretty good yeah that's not bad um pretty good and like it's funny 533 on the season but 30 at bats it's not like he's played um in two or three games right right 30 at bats he has 16 hits uh five rbi also want to point this out too he's drawn nine walks there you go so like he's getting on base a ton he's had i think 40 plate appearances now and he's been on base 25 times uh he's also batting 400 with runners in scoring position but that's one of the things here that i do want to shout out some of these guys on because it's small It's very small sample side stuff, but a lot of Auburn's batters are doing their job with runners in scoring position. Eric Guevara is batting 643. Mason McCrane is batting 857 with runners in scoring position. He's pretty genetic at this point. It is genetic. I told everybody a couple of weeks ago, like, hey, when we preview the season, I said, hey, you don't always get three amazing freshmen in the everyday lineup like you did last year where chase fralick and bub terrell and chris rembert were like your two three and four hitters right yeah and i said i said so like don't automatically expect that this year took a little bit longer to get the three but like mason mccrane brandon mccrane ethan bingaman look look like they might be three freshmen that play more games than they sit this year. Binghamman wasn't in the lineup today. There just wasn't really a way to get him in there. Right. But outside of that, I mean, they look like three guys you got to get in the lineup almost every day. Yep. No question about it. No question about it. All right. So what does this series mean? Big picture what's coming up for Auburn. We take a stab at that next right here on this reaction edition of Locked on Auburn. They win the series against Nebraska and they win today's battle 12 to three. Let's go. Today's show brought to you by our friends at FanDuel. FanDuel is America's number one sportsbook college basketball nonstop right now with big games and tight spreads, momentum swings every night from early tip-offs to late West Coast shootouts. There's always action on the board and FanDuel is giving you a way to turn that energy into even bigger potential wins with a college basketball parlay profit boost. Were you about to say something, Lindsey Crosby? I was going to say the Auburn Tigers in baseball are expected to be a college world series team, according to FanDuel's odds right now. I love that. I absolutely love that. Let's leave that right there. Head to FanDuel.com to get started. That's FanDuel.com to get started. FanDuel, play your game. Today's show also brought to you by our friends. And indeed, we talk about fit a lot in sports. It's not just about how good you are. It's about figuring out where to put certain guys. You're seeing Butch Thompson do that in real time, right? It's not just getting the best guys. It figuring out you know where are they in the lineup Where are they in the order Where are they in the field And Indeed understands that You tell them what you need They able to kind of use their algorithm and say hey, these folks applied and they fit and they have the strength for what you're looking for. So head to Indeed.com slash podcast right now. You can get a $75 sponsored job credit to help your job get the premium status it deserves. That is Indeed.com slash podcast. Need to hire? That's a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Today's show also brought to you by our friends at Robin Hood. What if sports were traded like markets? Now you can put your sports IQ to work in real time with Robin Hood Prediction Markets. It's not you against the house. It's you participating in a live market. You can buy or sell your positions live all game long or use your sports knowledge in the moments that matter most. Robinhood prediction markets change the game. It's people moving the action. So when the momentum shifts, you can move with it. Trade every play with Robinhood. Now available across the U.S. Download the Robinhood app now to begin. Thank you so much for making Locked on Auburn your first listen every single day. Auburn blasts Nebraska 12-3, Lindsey. So we talked about going into the season, how last week's, you know, action in Arlington was the most important weekend of the non-conference. I think we agree this was probably the second most important. Based off of what you've seen so far, an SEC play kind of looming. It'll be here before you know it. They've got Winthrop this upcoming weekend, and then it's about to get a lot tougher. but have you seen enough for Auburn to say, okay, they're ready for conference play? I'm really close. I'm really close. We did see, we've seen, we've still seen a little bit of offensive inconsistency and there's still a little bit of the guys who we're counting on who haven't quite gotten fully rolling yet, right? Chase Fraley is at the peak of his powers right now. Two for four, RBI, hit a bomb today. Chris Rembert, one for three, got it. You know, did get a hit, walked twice, but I do think we want to get him a few more at-bats. It feels like you're maybe one or two little steps away from being ready for conference play. The pitching, for the most part, is there. You did have a bullpen slip up on Friday. Again, that happens sometimes, and the offense could have mitigated that by scoring one more run or even having a hit in that four-inning stretch there in the middle of the game. But for the most part, you're really close. And again, I kind of laid it out earlier. You absolutely do have a blueprint here. There's not an SEC school that you're going to face this season that would rather throw their bullpen against you than their starter. Like, there are MLB teams who are legitimately like, hey, if we get into our bullpen, we don't care. We have great relievers. That's not how college baseball works yet. And so the fact that Auburn's gotten pretty good at getting pitchers out in all of the major games that they played, with the exception of that Cincinnati matchup, tells me that you're this close. It's not reliable that you can do it, and they do sometimes still get got by a good reliever that happened with Nebraska on Friday night. But outside of that, they are this close. It's baby steps, as Albinator put it in the chat. They are this close to being ready for conference play and honestly having a legitimate chance to win every series that they go into. Now, are they going to? No. They have to host Texas. They have to host Arkansas. They have to go to Florida, which is never easy. At A&M, who was preseason top five team, right? Mississippi State is undefeated. They're in the middle of playing UCLA right now. You have to go there as well. You're going to lose some of these series, but they have a chance to win all of them. And I think that's something we probably couldn't say two weeks ago. Agreed. That they had a shot to win some of these. Yeah. Before we look ahead to Sanford on Tuesday and then win through them next week, is Nebraska good? Like, where does – I mean, I think Nebraska will be clearly a bottom half SEC team. I don't think you would push back on that. A lot of the people I talked to this week trying to get ready for this said that Nebraska has a legitimate chance of maybe not winning the conference because UCLA's in there with them, but being one of the better teams, if not challenging for second or third place in the conference. And if you look at who they played, they've played some very good teams. Now, they lost to Louisville in Kansas State. We beat Louisville in Kansas State, but they beat Florida State just like we did. We kind of killed things for Florida State, and they never recovered there. but um they not they not bad they expected to be pretty good um part of this is the fact you have to remember too that they from a cold place and so they have not played a home game yet All of this from them has been on the road, and I do think that matters a little bit. Yeah. But they are supposed to be a good team this year. They are probably bottom half of the SEC if they were here, but that says more about the SEC than it does Nebraska. Yeah. I mean, the SEC has won, what, the last six championships in a row? Yeah, and, I mean, going into this week, 12 of the top 25 teams. I think that was D1 baseball's poll because they put Ole Miss in at 25 from the SEC. So take that for what it's worth. All right, so looking ahead now, Auburn hosts Samford Tuesday, 6 o'clock, first pitch, and then a three-game series this upcoming weekend against Winthrop. Of course, that'll be at home at Plainsman Park. park i tell you what the the midweek game i really would like to see that not be either a disaster or close to a mitigating disaster i'd rather them just you know win the game by the amount that they're supposed to yeah and and this one being against a more manageable opponent i think is okay when you have those tough games like a cincinnati you're gonna have a home and home with georgia tech in the midweek those are a little bit tougher because it does really feel like Auburn does everything to build towards the goal of winning the weekend right like that is the ultimate goal is we want to go two and one at least every weekend so that we can not only ensure we are in the tournament but we are hosting and a a super regional will go through planted park and so because of that you've got I think they've got to find a way maybe to be a little more crisp on Tuesdays on midweeks given that that being said the fact they lost to Cincinnati and barely won last week yeah that yeah they're probably gonna find a way to do that and Butch has been really good about trying to find like little incremental improvements here and there he talked about this on Tiger Talk earlier in the week that final play on Tuesday night where they one if that throws on a if that throws on a line he's out and so they spent time during the week working on being a tenth of a second faster from second to home so that if that situation comes up again they're safe like little things like that trying to find things to work on out of the wins so i'm hopeful that they're going to be a little bit better about this i do want to say though don't look past Winthrop. Okay. What do we know about Winthrop at this point? They are nine and two. They took a series against Georgetown on opening weekend. They played NC state kind of close until late. They swept Morehead state, not a state. They beat Marshall. They swept Maine. Like they're, they play Michigan state this week at home. And then they come here. They're playing well right now. I still don't think the talent levels are obviously not there compared to you, but they're playing well. they held their own against NC State on the road. And I do think that how they do against Michigan State at home will give us a better idea. But don't automatically say we got to sweep Winthrop or it's a terrible weekend. I do think that, like, you know, they have a chance of taking one of these games. But we want you to sweep, obviously. But they're not bad. So you're expecting, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but you're expecting 3-1 this week? that's probably the safest I feel like I can I can commit to simply because we've seen the issues on Tuesdays and I don't think Windsor's bad they should go 4-0 but I'm going to commit to 3-1 simply because that's kind of how I like the hedge yeah nope that makes sense that makes sense so programming note we probably will not go live after Samford Tuesday night because basketball will probably have just started when that game is ending yeah so probably won't do that but planning on going live multiple times this weekend after these games against Winthrop. So there you go. And then we'll have more on Tuesday on the Barn Baseball Show with Sonny Deshares and Bradlaw. Yep, yep. Be sure to check that out for sure. Lindsey, how can people check out everything you've got going on? The Barn Auburn. It's all the Auburn baseball stuff. We had discussion threads up all weekend for all three games. The Atlanta Brave stuff, bravestoday.com and the Bravestoday podcast as we get closer and closer to spring training. Please like the video. Please subscribe if you're tuned in on audio. Please subscribe and leave us a review. Helps us show out a ton. We'll see you next time. This has been Locked on Auburn. much caffeine as your favorite 12 ounce fancy coffee, but with zero sugar for zero sugar crashes. For more information and to get the party started, visit 5hourenergy.com or visit Amazon today.
