WHOA: Auburn Baseball DESTROYS UAB, Tigers READY For SEC Play

0:00Hey everyone, this is Ross Jackson, one of the hosts of the Lockdown Podcast Network. If your group chats been a little quiet lately, I want to invite you to come and join ours. If you sign up for the everydayer club, you get access to the members' only group chats for your favorite teams, plus national chats for every sport. Personally, I love watching folks talk a little smack in the NFC South Trash talk chat. You also get an ad-free version of your favorite Lockdown show and a whole lot more. You can check it out by tapping the everydayer club link in the show notes. Wow, that was just pure dominance in every phase of the game. Auburn, run rules, UAB. You are Lockdown Auburn, your daily podcast on the Auburn Tigers.

1:01Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Dominant, run rule, win over UAB, and a game we're going into is like, okay, we've seen Auburn be kind of hit or miss in these mid weeks, and we've seen the bats be not as explosive in these mid weeks, Lindsey. And then it's like, oh, is this going to be a situation where they're looking ahead with conference play and Missouri winning more games than we maybe have thought going into this weekend. Uh, no, that did not not at all happen. Just like, listen, these are these games are for perspective of you don't have to stress

2:07about it. And you can just kind of sit back and watch for fun stuff, right? Like we were on Eric Gavara's cycle, right? A short game and he got five played appearances. And he had to, he was a triple away from the cycle, which objectively is the hardest one. But I think the thing for me, you touched on it too. The thing for me is the bats and specifically how the power has come in for Auburn. That was one of the questions we had going into the season was, hey, you lost Ike Irish, you lost Cooper McMurray, where was your power going to come from? Yeah, we got four home runs today, chase Freilich, Eric Gavara, two guys that you really needed to pop off, Bob Tarell. I've been waiting for him to really start swinging a grand slam, a grand slam. He had a grand slam, um, steal. Yeah, and then like Lucas Steele, having a really tough start to the year. He's now five for 33, one of those five is a home run.

3:09And so just like the way that you did it is nice. I we knew that they were going to get the, um, you know, the, the past the baton, get them over, get them in kind of stuff. But to see the long ball, that was the big thing. And I think it's important to point out, um, there are so many teams who are losing their mid weeks. Shadow Tolbinator in the chat right now, you're, you're opposing scoreboard. Ellis used losing four to two Mississippi states losing six to two. And it's like, you know, Auburn's win in the midweek. And the one midweek you lost was Cincinnati, a power conference team. You didn't lose to a directional state. That's true. That's true. Um, yeah, I mean, we talk about the, the floor and the ceiling of this team. And I think we're getting more and more glint. I think we saw the floor early on and it's like, okay, give it time, give it time.

4:09Boy, we came on here and there were a lot of people panicking in those first few games. Even some of these games that we won early on. And it's like, okay, hold on, this lineup's too good. The ceiling is too high. We're starting to see them get closer to the ceiling now. Yeah, it's when you have the offense here. And really the Auburn offensive issues were kind of isolated to like your first four games. Right? Like Youngstown State three times and then Cincinnati. Like, yeah, you scored 17 against Youngstown State in game three. But the first two games you scored a combined total of four. You only won because you held them to two. Right. And Cincinnati, you were out scored eight and nothing. But like since then, you've had your lowest run totals have been four, six and five and you won all of those games. Right? The one game you lost to Nebraska was nine to eight. So the offense is here and because you have a good offense and the pitching staff has been

5:13so good, the ceiling is absurdly high. And I feel like even if one of those things were too slump, even if your offense were a slump or even if you're were too slump, your floor would still be pretty high. So like it's a high floor and a high ceiling. And that's kind of ideally where you want to be. Because the ceiling right now on this team is college world series Omaha trip when in multiple games. That's the ceiling of this team right now, which is what Butch Thompson has been very consistent on wanting. Like this is we make it to Omaha or we don't. Like that is that is the bar, the standard for this. He said like it's no longer good enough to make it to Omaha. We've done that enough. The goal is to win games in Omaha. Yeah, advance in Omaha. Like you have the line up to do it. You went one and two. Yeah, you have the line up to do it. I think you've got the pitching to do it. And I think kind of seeing Andreas Alvarez in this midweek role keep finding ways to win.

6:15And I don't really think it was all on him even in the Cincinnati loss. I know it looks really bad. It looks like we gave up our defense was terrible that eight nothing game. But a lot of it was like other guys like kind of drop in the ball or letting a ball get past them or whatever it might be. So I don't really all on him. I think he's actually defensive issues too. Yeah, he's all right. And this staff thinks physically just talking to some of the folks close to this like the staff like they they think physically he can be a weekend caliber guy. So they're waiting for him to take that next step. But I think he will at some point this season. Lizzie, I want you to act like you're in a time machine and go back to the start of the year. And and if I would have at is that your time machine sounds. Yeah, so that is yeah, if going into the season if I said, hey, there's two guys. Several weeks into the season going into conference play that are hitting 450 higher than 450. Would you have said Bristol Carter? And would you have said Brandon McCrane?

7:17Absolutely not. Not a shot. Now I honestly was not a hundred percent sure that Bristol Carter was going to be an everyday starter for you. I thought there was really I mean it felt like it was easy to pencil him in. But there was enough inconsistencies last year. And you saw early in the season he was not the everyday starter in the outfield. Like he he was not that guy. He's become that guy now. Totally right. But I mean there was a couple games when he just didn't get in the game because they didn't use him. And we're at the point now where you can't not only can you not take him out of the lineup and less like you're just trying to give him a blow on a on a double header Saturday or a shoulder issue like we saw a crop up a little bit today. But Chris Rembert's back. And they talked all off season about Chris Rembert being our lead off hitter setting the tone early. They put Chris Rembert behind Bristol Carter tonight because

8:18Bristol Carter is just that much of a menace on the base path. Yes. If you're a opposing pitcher he's annoying. Jumping around stealing bags distracting you. Yeah. Hey you mentioned I want to pivot the SEC plan a second but you also mentioned something about Chris Rembert. And I want to share something that I thought watching the game and get your thought on it. I actually think it's a really big deal for Auburn. So that's coming up as we recap Auburn's 17 to two win over UAB. Next right here unlocked on Auburn. Today's show brought to you by our friends at Game Time. Game Time is the best place to buy tickets for anything. You know if you if Auburn hopefully goes on a run in the SEC tournament you're going to be able to buy game time tickets through game time whether it's to go see him in the SEC tournament later in the week. Hopefully fingers crossed or traveling around and seeing him going to run in the SEC tournament. That would be great. That would be great. Or of course just go watch Auburn baseball. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app. Use from a code locked on.

9:18L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N. Locked on for 20 bucks off your first purchase today. Download the Game Time app today. Today's show also brought to you by our friends at Robin Hood. What a 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. Use your sports knowledge in the moments that matter. You're no longer just a spectator. Play by play. You decide. Trade every play with Robin Hood. Now available across the US. Download the Robin Hood app now to begin. And today's show brought to you by our friends at Indeed. We all know that if you are over hiring, you're probably over a bunch of other stuff. And it's easy to let that kind of eat up all of your day. Well, it doesn't have to. With indeed sponsored jobs, listeners of this show, you can get $75 sponsored job credit to help you get your job. The premium status it deserves. And indeed, we'll find you the best candidate.

10:20They're great at what they do. Just go to nd.com slash podcast right now. Nd.com slash podcast. Need to hire. That's a job for indeed sponsored jobs. Lindsey Crosby joining me as we recap. Auburn 17 to two. When and if you've been thinking about joining the everyday club, now's a great time to do that. You can chat with me directly and make show suggestions and topic ideas at the everyday club in our discord exclusive discord. And you also, you also get access to an audio or an ad free audio feed. And if you join before the NCA tournament tips off, you can get into the everyday club bracket pool for a chance to win Lockdown merch. It should be a lot of fun. Use promo code march at lock.alburn.supercast.com to get your first month free. I think it was in the first inning, Lindsey. It might have been in the second inning because everybody went through the, we went through the order in the first and we saw the early part of the line up in the second. But there was a play where it should have been a double play

11:26for you AB. But Chris Rimbert got to second so fast. He got to, he got to hop on it. And it should have been a, it should have been double play and ended up both guys being safe because then went to second because Chris Rimbert should not have been there that far. A guy who we thought was going to be questionable going into SEC play just from the first series of the season and for him to be making that play gives me all the comfort in the world that physically he is a-okay. Yeah, some of the things that you needed to see checked off for Chris Rimbert. You needed to see first the third on a base hit. He's done that. I think he did it tonight actually. You need to see him move like moving before the pitch. And that's what this was. He wasn't stealing, but he got into motion early given the situation to avoid the double play and it worked out. And I will say, I'm not going to give him a bunch of credit just because I know the guy, but seeing Sunny over there at first base

12:28and now seeing how these guys are a little more aggressive with getting runners in motion before the pitch, getting, staying out of double play situations, things like that, makes me feel really good at the health of and just overall how hard it is to pitch against this Auburn baseball team. But yeah, Chris looked really good there. Got just got moving early and did a really good job. I think in the game overall, minus that one little defensive issue that he had of just showing that like, hey, the ankle's good. He's agile. He's cutting back and forth. He's getting some moves. Felt really good about that. So Chris Rimbert has to be considered to be as close to 100% as you're going to get in season. And now the question for me is going to be Bristol Carter. How is Bristol Carter doing? We saw him wince a little bit tonight, look like a shoulder issue, and that's something that's been bugging him now for a season or so off and on. Yeah.

13:30Yeah, the the aspect of the aspect of now turning our focus to SEC play, the bats are rolling. I think we feel really good about our starting pitching situation and relief pitching in some areas, for sure, especially especially when you know, Hetzler comes in. I'm big on Chatterton. I think there's a few questions as far as the relief goes, but yeah. Going into conference play now, Missouri won a decent amount of game so far, has played no one. I think this is a perfect scenario where you can go on the road and kind of get your feet wet as far as we haven't played a true road game. Have we? Arlington, but that was neutral site. We have not played a true road game, which is common for the SEC at this point in time in the counter. Right? Yeah. You know, except for some of the some of the teams, like Missouri went down to Florida for the first four games of the season, but outside of that, most of the SEC teams are at home the entire time.

14:31We actually played a new type game. Yeah, sorry, Leslie. So the I mean, if you've got to start on the road in the SEC, you probably wanted to be Missouri. Maybe South Carolina. Like they're off to a tough start. I was talking to a player of this for sure. I was talking to a former player about this just recently, and he said that like the idea makes sense, right? Get some of these freshmen broken in, something like that. But sometimes, and he specifically said Missouri, when there's no one there, sometimes one, it can be harder to get hyped up for a game. But if you were going into, you know, Alex Box, or do you know more something like, you know, some of these these big cathedrals of college baseball in the SEC, and then too, if you're not careful going into an environment like that, having to get yourself hyped up, and then if you come out of there with a sweep, that means that it's possible sometimes for the young guys to get a false sense of security

15:36about like, oh, hey, road games in the SEC aren't anything. Well, you went to Missouri, wait until you go to LSU, wait until you go to Texas, whoever it might be. So I do think that they're going to, they're not going to look past Missouri. They're going to say, hey, going into Taylor Stadium, it doesn't matter how Missouri's doing. And to your point, record wise too, right now, I don't know, I don't know what they did tonight. I think, I think they won. No, it was a day game. They did win that, yeah. So going into Taylor Stadium, like it's going to be intimidating, but you just have to be careful. Don't get your hopes up. You know, sorry, don't get, not your hopes up. I'm trying to say here, don't get, don't get locked down. Maybe there you go. Yeah, don't you guard down. Don't get lulled into a false sense of security. But it is a soft landing compared to your first SEC series was like, hey, you're going to Lindsay Nelson, or you're going to, you know,

16:36to one of these really tough ball parks. To face one of these top great teams, right, Taylor Stadium, or something like that, Bully Field, et cetera. Yeah. But then, I mean, you, you, you host Georgia Tech. I mean, that might be a top six, top seven matchup. I am, I am a little more hopeful about getting Georgia Tech outside of that little tiny ban box that they call the stadium. It's one of the more offensively slow. We go there too, right? It's a, it's a home and home. Yeah, we go there. But again, if you lose on the road to a top 10 team, RPI-wise, that does not hurt you virtually at all. Right. It's like, it's impossible for a, for a loss to not hurt you. But that situation, it's the least kind of punishment possible. But getting them out of that ballpark, I did some of the looking on this. The park factors in that ballpark are like 130, it's like 30 percent more offensively inclined than the average college baseball ballpark. Okay. So get them out of that. Let's see what they do. I'm curious about that. Right. Yeah, that's, that's the kind of situation

17:38where you get to a regional and you get hit in the mouth, you know, because you're not used to. If you're not hosting, then you're in trouble when you get there. Yeah, that's right. And then when they go to Omaha, they would struggle if they'd Omaha because it's a big ballpark. Yeah, push it back for sure. All right, so I mean, let's, let's get into predictions for, for this weekend. I don't think I'm going to predict a sweep. I think Auburn wins 2-1 and I'll even say that they win Friday and Saturday and then I think Missouri will prevent the sweep on Sunday. That's my prediction. I just don't like predicting sweeps in SEC play. Yeah, I think the only worry, like I also don't want to predict a sweep in SEC play. I don't want to predict a sweep ever. Like I'm just cautious like that, but especially in SEC play, I do think the one concern when you look at Missouri baseball is if the first two games are even remotely close, I'm worried about how many pitchers they're going to have to burn

18:38to get through games one and two. We've seen some of these game threes Auburn has played even against quality opponents get out of hand because those teams just don't have the depth of pitching to match up with an Auburn team that's throwing two guys on a Friday and three guys on a Saturday, right? So I do also want to predict that yes, there is going to be two out of three, but I don't know if Sunday's the day where they prevent a sweep. I feel like it might be something like Saturday if they get lucky and throw a bunch of their guys, especially if there's a weather delay or something. But to your point, 11 a.m. start time on Sunday, and that's always a little bit of an adjustment for you there on the road. Yeah, I guess it's because they want to get back home. Is that the process travel? Yeah, and so they're just like they plus it's there in eastern time. So like that's a noon start for them. You have a window of like starting from like noon to two on a Sunday when when when school still in session.

19:41Missouri with it has to be very by a certain time. I thought so. Are they not? Missouri's west of us, right? Well, yeah, but Alabama's like the only state that's is Missouri in eastern time, really? I thought so. Missouri. Where's something time? Where's something new? No, it's in central time. It's in central. Then why are they starting at 11 a.m.? I don't know. That seems super. That was going to be my next question. Like that's a big. That's dumb, man. Wow. That's dumb. That is dumb. Yeah, I mean, we'll go live after that game. Works a little bit earlier, but yeah, interesting. Interesting enough for sure. All right, so we're both saying two and one. Obviously, you want to, I mean, this is going to be the case for all of this, but you know, Missouri hasn't faced a pitching staff or a lineup, more so a lineup like Auburn this year. So I do think there's a real possibility

20:41that they look up on Friday and it's a third or fourth inning. And they've got to start like going to their bullpen already. And if that happens, that changes everything. Yeah, if you talk about Bristol Carter getting it going, let Bristol Carter, you know, if he's batting two or three times in the first few winnings, like, I think we got a shot. Absolutely. Yeah, they're absolutely going to be, um, absolutely going to be in trouble. Shout out to the chat, forgiving me a hard time about not knowing Missouri's in central time. I have zero reason to go to Missouri, okay? But you know where it is, right? I believe I have I think about it. I don't want to talk to my head be like, oh, yeah, that's definitely an eastern time. Like, you know, shout out AU Tigers. I'm a baseball expert, not a geography expert. It's not Geography's Lindsey Crosby. It's baseball. More likely to know ERAs and wins above replacement for Missouri than, um, than the time zone that they're in. And that's okay. Yeah. And are you still talking about Georgia Tech?

21:44There's a question. Did I graduate? I got a master's degree from Harvard. Thank you very much. I got an MBA from Harvard. Uh, yeah, I'm never going to let this down. I'm never going to let this down. This is a blessing. That's so funny. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I learned business not time zones, okay? Yeah, we're going to host Texas and folks are going to be like, well, they got to get back because they're in, uh, they're a pacific time, right? Lindsey, like, no, no, they're not. They're in, they're in central. They're in central. All right. Thank you guys so much for hanging out with us. Lindsey, how can people check out everything you've got going on? All the Auburn baseball content. It's both here. The bar and Auburn dot com. The bar and baseball show Brad and I have a preview coming later this week. And you win a Braves content Bravesoday.com. This is the time we are so close to opening day. Please like the video. Please subscribe. We'll see you next time. This has been Locked on Auburn. Introducing the all new Mazda CX5 featuring more connection. Hey, Google, where's the nearest Pilates class? Safety that has your back.

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