REACTION: Auburn Baseball BLASTS Nebraska, DOMINATES Series

0:00The 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 the locked on Auburn. Your daily Auburn Tigers podcast. I'm your host, Zach Blackerby. And thank you so much. I locked on Auburn. Your first list on every single day. Baseball's Lindsey Crosby. You find his baseball coverage over at the barn Auburn.com for college baseball. He covers all of it more on that. And a bit Auburn blast Nebraska. 12 to 3 after run rolling them in game two yesterday. There was a lot of panic Lindsey Friday night. We're said, hold on. Yeah. And, you know, they lose an extra is on Friday, but they dominate every single inning essentially after that. And you could tell like pitching depth mattered. The bats

1:05showed 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 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. Let's say 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 them about, you know, they used seven pitchers in game one, they used six pitchers in game two, despite only seven and it's like that was not a scheduled bullpen game. Right. We just knocked their starter out so early. And

2:08then you look at today, Nebraska used a, like 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 schemes 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 schemes. 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, and the Tigers ended up like taking down some really good

3:09teams on the weekend with that strategy. Yes, sure. Maybe their Friday night guy, Auburn's Friday night guy wasn't to the same caliber of a Paul scheme to 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 drew four walks offensively, issued 12 walks as a pitching staff. Ridiculous. Yeah. And absolutely insane. That's the strategy here. And we saw it work out. So, you know, shout out to Randall from Friday night from 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 the McCrane brothers. And then that was kind

4:09of 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 for I mean, you saw it Friday too, but you saw it really all weekend. And you're seeing different parts of this lineup now. Start to get comfortable. It's not just Bristol Carter. It's not just Freilich. It's not just Bob Terrell. You're starting to see the full lineup, which is what we thought would happen. It didn't happen from game one, but they are starting to get comfortable now. Yeah. Mason McCrane drove in six on Saturday, which is that good. It's a pretty good weekend in comfort, like in baseball. Never mind a single game. Right. He had another RBI today, by the way, too. So I mean, he's he's driven 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

5:11because you have these guys. Not only did they step up, they can play multiple positions. Right. Brain and McCrane moved from second to third, because Chris Rembert was back for game two, but you 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 a hundred percent, but he appeared to be moving. Okay. He looks pretty good. I mean, especially today, I thought I looked even more crisp today than he did on Friday. He did go first to third today on a bad 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 the first base. But for the most part, he was actually able to, open it up, go first to third and look good there. But not a hundred percent, but he's pretty close. But yeah, you put Brain and McCrane at third. Lucas Steele always catches for Alex Petrovic, who got the win today. He's three and oh, by the way. And so you put Chase Frailick at first. That lit you take Ethan Bingham and give him a pitching debut on the mound in the final inning. I mean, the depth on this team is very inviable. And so far, Auburn is winning the bet that we can

6:18sacrifice 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. That's pretty good. And like, it's funny. 533 on the season, but 30 at bats. It's not like he's played in two or three games, right? Right. 30 at bats. He has 16 hits. Five RBI. Also want to point this out too. He's drawn nine walks. There you go. So like he's getting on base eight. He's had I think 40 played appearances now. And he's been on base 25 times. He's also batting 400 with runners and 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 very small, it's very small table side stuff. But a lot of Auburn's

7:20batters are doing their job with runners and scoring position. Eric Guevara is batting 643. Mason McCrane is batting 857 with runners and scoring position. He's pragmatic at this point. What's magic? It is genetic. I told everybody a couple of weeks ago, like, Hey, when we're preview the season, I said, Hey, you don't always get three amazing freshmen in the everyday line up like you did last year. We're Chase Freilich and Bob Tarell 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 Binghaman, look, look like they might be three freshmen that play more games than they sit this year. Binghaman wasn't in the line of the day. There just wasn't really a way to get them in there. Right. But outside of that, I mean, they look like three guys you got to get in the line

8:21up almost every day. Yep. No question about it. No question about it. All right. So what does this series mean? Big picture was 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 went today's battle 12 to three. Let's go. Today's show brought to you by our friends at Fandall. Fandall is America's number one sports book 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 Fandall 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 cross me? I was going to say Auburn Tigers in baseball are expected to be a college world series team according to Fandall's odds right now. I love that. I absolutely love that. Let's leave that right there. Head to fandall.com to get started as fandall.com to get started

9:24to fandall 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 bush tops do that in real time, right? It's not just getting the best guys. It's figuring out 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're 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 indy.com slash podcast right now. You can get a $75 sponsored job credit to help your job get the premium status that deserves at its indy.com slash podcast. Need to hire that's a job for indeed sponsored job. Today's show also brought to you by our friends at Robin Hood. What is sports were traded like markets? Now you can put your sports

10:24IQ 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 Robin Hood prediction markets change the game. It's people moving the action. So in the momentum shifts, you can move with it. Trade every play with Robin Hood now available across the US. Download the Robin Hood app now to begin. Thank you so much for making locks on Auburn. You're first listen every single day Auburn blast Nebraska 12 to three men Z. So we talked about going into the season. How last weeks, you know, action in Arlington was the most important weekend of the non conference. I think we agree. This is probably the second most important based off of what you've seen so far and SEC play kind of

11:27looming. 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 and say, okay, they're ready for conference play? I'm really close. I'm really close. We did see, we've seen us, 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 Frailick is at the peak of his powers right now. Two for four, RBI hit a bomb the day. Chris Rimbert, 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

12:28a hit and 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 let 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've played with the exception of that Cincinnati matchup tells me that like 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 the brass gun Friday night. But outside of that, they are this close. It's baby steps as Auburn here 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

13:28go into. Now, are they going to know they have to host Texas? They, um, they have to host Arkansas. Like they've got had to go to Florida, which is never easy. They know at A&M, who was preseason top five team, right? Right. Mississippi State is undefeated. They're in the middle of playing UCLA right now. You have to go there as well. So like 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 went through them next week. Is Nebraska good? Like where, where does when the, 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 the Nebraska has a legitimate chance of maybe not winning the conference because you

14:33see a lays 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 and in Kansas State. We beat Louisville and 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 they're not, they're not bad. They're expected to be pretty good. Part of this is the fact you have to remember to that they're from a cold weather place. And so they're doing a, they have not put 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. But the SEC is one what the last six championships in a row. Yeah. And you're I mean, going into this week, 12 of the top 25 teams. I think I was D1 baseballs pole

15:36because they put Ole Miss in at 25 or from the SEC. So take that for what is worth. All right. So looking ahead now, Auburn hosts Sanford Tuesday, six 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. I tell you what 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 when the game by the amount that they're supposed to. Yeah. And this one being against a more manageable opponent, I think is okay. When you have those tough games like a Cincinnati, you're going to 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 as we want to go two and one at least every weekend so that we can not only ensure we are in the tournament,

16:38but we are hosting and a super regional will go through Plainsman 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 a Cincinnati and barely one last week. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, they're probably going to find a way to do that. And butch has been really good about trying to find like little incremental improvements here. And they're talking about this on Tiger Talk earlier in the week. That final play on Tuesday night where they won. 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

17:40bit 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 more head 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 to 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. It's a it's a terrible weekend. I do think that like, you know, they have a chance of taking one of these games, but so we want you to sweep obviously, but they're not. So you're expecting, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but you're expecting three and one this week. That's probably the safest I feel like I

18:43can commit to simply because we've seen the issues on Tuesdays. And I don't think Winthrop's bad. They should go for no, but I'm going to commit to three and one simply because that's kind of how I like the hedge. Yeah, no, that makes sense. That makes sense. So programming note, we probably will not go live after Sanford Tuesday night because basketball will probably have just started when that game is ending. Yeah. So probably we'll do that, but planning on going live multiple times as weekend after these games against Winthrop. So there you go. And then we'll have more on on Tuesday on the bar and baseball show with Sonny to share a breadball. Yeah, yeah, be sure to check that out for sure. Lindsay, how can people check out everything you've got going on? The bar and Auburn, it's all the Auburn baseball stuff. We had discussion threads up all weekend for all three games. They let it brave stuff brave today.com and the brave today 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.