There was frustration, sure. A late-innings ejection from the pitching coach, of all people, summed that up Monday night at Plainsman Park.
Yet there was still satisfaction, albeit tempered, after Auburn’s 13-7 season-ending loss to Clemson before the third capacity crowd in four days.
Minutes after Clemson first baseman Richie Shaffer pumped his fist, recorded the game’s final out and joined his teammates at the pitcher’s mound for a dog pile, Auburn’s players streamed out of the dugout and looked out toward the fans wearing Auburn orange.
They were sent off with a standing ovation.
“It means a lot,” shortstop Casey McElroy said, “to have fans believe in Auburn baseball again.”
Forty-three wins, the best offensive season in program history and oodles of hope for the future from a team that previously hadn’t even made the SEC tournament since 2003 will do that.
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Clemson coach Jack Leggett’s reaction to Auburn’s dramatic, 11-10 comeback victory was brief and to the point.
Second baseman Mike Freeman had a similar reaction.
“The only thing we can do,” Freeman said, “is flush it.”
Clemson went from the driver’s seat in this NCAA regional to behind a tidal wave of momentum that Auburn will try to carry into tonight’s game at Plainsman Park.
“I don’t think it will be that difficult,” Freeman said. “Our guys have been there before.”
The majority of Clemson’s players have, in fact, been in this situation before – only they were in Auburn’s position. Clemson, which hosted a regional at its home park last season, lost the second game to Oklahoma State, 3-2. After defeating Tennessee Tech in the losers’ bracket championship, the Tigers routed the Cowboys on the same day before advancing to the Super Regionals with a 6-5 victory over Oklahoma State.
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Creede Simpson’s fingers flickered on the handle of his bat as Clemson’s Tomas Cruz stared him down, one strike away from sending the visitors to its ninth NCAA Super Regional.
The 20-year-old, born and raised in the shadows of Plainsman Park, had no idea he was about to hit one of the most memorable home runs in the program’s history, one that would ultimately send Auburn past Clemson, 11-10, and on to a winner-take-all regional championship game tonight at 6 p.m.
Faced with two strikes, two outs, two runners on base and Auburn trailing by a run, Simpson was just trying to keep the game going with a little contact.
“I was just trying to get the barrel on the ball,” Simpson said. “I knew I had a great opportunity, I didn’t want to waste it.”
He sure didn’t.
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Auburn's Austin Hubbard
Austin Hubbard joked that he threw somewhere close to “8,000 sliders” in his 4 2/3-inning, Iron Man performance Thursday against South Carolina in the SEC Tournament.
His estimate was modest.
It probably felt like at least 10,000 to the Gamecock hitters who swung helplessly at sliders in the dirt, watched other sliders tail across the heart of the plate and failed to do anything significant with Hubbard’s trademark over his 69-pitch, winning effort.
“I’m not sure what the scouting report is,” Hubbard said. “I know I throw it a lot, so they might know it’s coming.”
It hasn’t helped.
Hubbard, who will be fresh and ready for the Tigers’ NCAA regional matchup with Jacksonville State on Friday, has been Auburn’s top lockdown option out of a much-improved bullpen this season. Averaging more than 1.3 strikeouts per inning, Hubbard carries a team-best 1.96 earned run average, ranks fourth behind three starters with five wins and fourth in the SEC with nine saves.
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