Auburn baseball opens the College World Series with a rematch against the Ole Miss Rebels
Auburn baseball wasn't picked before the season to be in Omaha, or even in the postseason, by anybody. Not the national polls, not by other SEC head coaches, or the media outlets that cover college baseball. Auburn head baseball coach Butch Thompson explained that it's been a motivating factor for his squad. "They've been challenged with low expectations and it just drove them even more to this point," Thompson said. "And we're kind of walking in here thinking 'we're not done yet'. And that's a great feeling for a baseball team."
Auburn enters Omaha with plans to avenge the 2-1 series loss back in March to a then number-1 Ole Miss Rebels team; an ugly loss that, in retrospect, shaped this current Tigers squad. The series was sloppy, with all three games being blowouts and Auburn committing five errors in game one - 10 of Ole Miss’s 13 runs in game one were scored in an inning extended by runners reaching on a wild pitch, passed ball, or error.
But out of the disaster came some season-altering changes. Jake Wyandt's two errors behind the plate and three passed balls in game one prompted a change to Nate LaRue for the next series in College Station against a prolific base-stealing Texas A&M squad. LaRue threw out four of five attempted Aggie stealers that weekend, collected three hits and five RBIs in game three, and has held the full-time catching job ever since. "Nate LaRue's impact - obviously, his arm. Absolutely can impact a baseball game." said Thompson. "But it's not just his throwing but his receiving, his calling the game, all those things. He's growing weekly. I don't think a team can be sincerely competitive at this stage without a great catcher, and he's been amazing and he's getting better."
Thompson, addressing the media before leaving for Omaha, acknowledged that he's not really sure if the familiarity with Ole Miss is a good or a bad thing. "Is it a good thing that you know this team so well? Or do you think it's better to have the other team not really know what you guys are about and catch them by surprise?" He agreed that past experience ultimately wasn't what would decide the matchup. "It's not about whether you're familiar; this is about (being) good, and hot, and how many dimensions you can play in. This will all come down to execution."
That's not to say that Auburn's going to pass on the advantage of throwing a different look at the Rebels. Joseph Gonzalez, Saturday's starter, wasn't available for the Ole Miss series in March due to a blister on his throwing hand and isn't a known quantity to Ole Miss - he only threw to 5 Ole Miss batters in 2021 over two appearances, both in relief. 7-3 on the 2022 season with a 2.95 ERA, "Gonzo" has been the most reliable and consistent starter across the regular season, at one point reeling off four straight quality starts with a combined 6 earned runs in 30 innings, all in conference play. He pitched a complete game against Vanderbilt, scattering eight hits and only two runs (one earned) while striking out eight, with no walks.
"Arguably, at the end of the day he's our best starter, has gone the longest per start. We're excited to let Joseph get an opportunity to start us off here." said Thompson about the sophomore righty from Puerto Rico.
Ole Miss is throwing a different look at Auburn as well, with righty Dylan DeLucia taking the bump for a Rebels team that's lost multiple starters to injury, a move that forced head coach Mike Bianco to declare he was "abandoning" the idea of starting pitchers - he just had pitchers, and he would let them throw until they stopped being effective.
It's a move that Bianco claims lit a fire under DeLucia, who lowered his ERA by nearly two full runs and was pivotal to Ole Miss rallying to clinch one of the final spots in the Field of 64. “DeLucia has been so good for us opening up a weekend," Bianco said. "Not just giving us a chance to win but a great chance to win. (He’s) a guy that has started on Friday about midway through the season and kind of saved the season for us. He really turns the weekend around for us.”
DeLucia actually pitched against Auburn that weekend in March, earning the win in game one after coming on in relief of starter John Gaddis. He went 3.1 innings with six hits, two runs (both earned), one walk, and five strikeouts on 62 pitches. DeLucia, who has both a complete game against Mississippi State and multiple deep outings of 7+ innings, claims that he's a different pitcher in the postseason thanks to some minor mechanical tweaks.
"At the SEC tournament and before, I didn't really have command of my slider," DeLucia said. "It was moving different ways. I figured out I was throwing it way too hard. Now it's dropping really good."
DeLucia's changes seem to be working - in two postseason starts, he's punched out 21 batters in 11.2 innings.
DeLucia said he throws his slider at three separate velocities, ranging from 79-86 mph, with the former a strike-throwing pitch with good depth and the latter resembling a cutter to left-handed batters. For the fastball, DeLucia applies more pressure with his pointer finger when facing lefties and with his middle finger against righties to change the horizontal movement.
"With my arm slot, it's weird. I hide the ball and tunnel it," DeLucia said. "It looks like you're throwing a fastball or slider from the same spot. It's hard to pick up." The deception is necessary, as DeLucia's fastball location is too often in the "deadzone" over the middle of the plate where it's too high to induce grounders and too low to cause fly balls.
Backing up DeLucia is a bullpen sitting on a 17.1 inning postseason scoreless streak, led by the two-headed monster of power fastballer Brandon Johnson (1-3 w/ 4.08 ERA and 11 saves) and breaking baller Josh Mallitz (1-0, 1.30 ERA w/ 2 saves). Despite a team ERA of 4.44, highest in the Omaha field, Ole Miss has the best K rate with 10.9 strikeouts per nine innings.
That pen throws to catcher Hayden Dunhurst, a very good pitch-framing catcher that, despite his arm strength, struggles to control the running game - he has allowed 28 steals in 38 attempts on the season. SS Jacob Gonzalez is considered an early contender for the 1st round of the 2023 MLB Draft with his blend of offense and exceptional defense, while veteran 2B Peyton Chatagnier has two full years of experience at the keystone turning double plays with Gonzalez.
Receiving those throws at 1st is "The Captain", Tim Elko. A folk hero for his quick return from a torn ACL to provide postseason heroics in 2021, Elko is the leader of the team both on the field and at the plate - he led the Rebels offensively with a .302 average, a school-record 22 HRs, 74 RBIs & a 1.068 OPS.
Ole Miss rallied from their late addition to the Field of 64 to storm through the Coral Gables Regional as the #3 seed, pillaging Miami, Arizona, and Canisius to a +20 run differential before going to Hattiesburg, MS for Supers and not allowing Southern Miss to score in a two-game sweep, winning 10-0 and 5-0 to punch their ticket to Omaha.
PROJECTED LINEUP
Look for Auburn to counter with the same lineup they featured all through the NCAA postseason, with switch-hitting 2B Cole Foster batting 2nd in front of Sonny DiChiara and freshman Mike Bello playing LF and batting 9th. It's a lineup that scored over 50 runs in the three games of the Auburn Regional, setting several Auburn postseason records in the process: runs scored in a game (Sonny DiChiara, with 5 against Florida State), RBIs in a game (Cole Foster, with 9 vs Southeastern Louisiana in a single-game record 3 HRs) and in a series (12, by Cole Foster) as well as doubles in a game (Kason Howell, with 3 against Florida State) and hits in a single game (Brody Moore, with 5 against Florida State).
This lineup proved they can win close games, too: Auburn scored 14 runs in three games in the Corvallis Super Regional, winning the decisive game three despite tallying only three hits.
Credit goes to the pitchers: the Tigers turned in a 3.67 staff ERA against Oregon State, allowing only six earned runs in the last two games and 18.0 innings. It's an aspect of the team that's been intentionally developed across the season: "With Tim and our pitchers, it's just continued to grow. It's at another level that shows up at game time." said Thompson.
He went on to praise the efforts of Carson Skipper and Blake Burkhalter, for "standing in the gap", as well as freshman John Armstrong and the contributions of two pitchers recovering from injuries, Tommy Sheehan and Chase Isbell. "We've just been bringing them (Sheehan and Isbell) along slowly all year long, waiting for this [...] and now we're seeing Sheehan's best outing and Isbell's best outing". Sheehan threw 3.1 innings against Oregon State, earning the win in game one after allowing only 2 hits and no runs with three strikeouts and one walk. Isbell threw 2.2 innings of hitless, scoreless baseball late in the game two loss, keeping the game close enough for Auburn's offense to threaten and, more importantly, require Oregon State to use their closer for the final 3.1 innings, rendering him unavailable for the decisive game three.
All season, the coaching staff has asked this team to do three things: Dominate the routine play on defense, execute your pitches, and get timely hits. But in the end, Thompson knows all his work and strategizing doesn't really have much of an impact on the outcome of the games. "This is a player's game, practice is for the coaches. They're interested in having success and playing championship level baseball. It's more powerful when it's player-driven. There's an intention that they're having success."
Talking to the players, you can hear the singular focus. Said senior SS Brody Moore, a member of the elected "legacy group": "There's no excuses. This is what we prepared for. This is what we wanted to do. And you know, we're not done yet. Job's not finished and we're going up there to prove something." Senior CF Kason Howell, who started on the 2019 squad that made it to Omaha: ""The motto of 'not done yet' is really sticking with us. It's really taken a hold of this team. And I think that we have a great vision of winning a national championship, bringing home that trophy for the first time in this program's history." Reliever Carson Skipper echoed the sentiments. "Like Kason said, our motto back in 2019 was 'let's make it to Omaha'. And this year, it's 'let's go out and win a national championship.' Just making it here is not good enough for us. We'll go out and do everything we can to prove it and prove ourselves."
STAT COMPARISON
| Team | Scoring (Runs per game) | Batting Average | OBP | SLG | Walks | 2B per game | HR per game | SB per game |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Auburn | 7.2 | .287 | .388 | .453 | 202 | 1.95 | 1.18 | .77 |
Ole Miss | 7.6 | .279 | .376 | .495 | 278 | 1.92 | 1.68 | .54 |
| Team | Staff ERA | BB allowed per nine | K per nine | Fielding % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Auburn | 4.42 | 4.11 | 10.2 | .981 |
Ole Miss | 4.44 | 3.88 | 10.9 | .971 |
SCHEDULE
Auburn takes on Ole Miss at 6PM Central on Saturday in game one of the College World Series in Omaha. The game is being broadcast on ESPN and the radio call, with Voice of the Tigers Andy Burcham and producer Brad Law, can be heard online at AuburnTigers.com and locally on 93.9 FM.
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