Mickey Dean, the head softball coach at Auburn, stated that he would retire at the end of the 2024 season after seven seasons on The Plains.
Following a 2–7 start to SEC play, the Tigers were struggling at the time of the announcement. Their next game was against the fourth-ranked Tennessee Volunteers.
Following Dean’s statement, Auburn players expressed their gratitude on social media for their head coach’s guidance and vowed to close out the 2024 season on a high note.
It would have been simple to assume that Auburn’s players were limited in what they could say after hearing what they had to say. then wonder if the group would begin to disintegrate gradually.
Nevertheless, the contrary has transpired.
That weekend, Auburn failed to win a series against Tennessee. However, the Tigers persevered in every game and won the series finale to prevent a second straight weekend of series sweeps.
After defeating Tennessee 4-0, Auburn seems to have turned the corner.
The Tigers have won eight of their past ten games, including the victory over the Vols. Two of those victories helped Auburn win the series and surprise the sixth-ranked LSU Tigers at the time.
It should come as no surprise that Auburn’s pitching silenced LSU.
LSU was scoring more than six runs per game on average heading into the Auburn series. But the Bayou Bengals never scored more than two runs against Auburn.
Not who most people expected was the main name in the circle.
In lieu of going with senior Maddie Penta, the SEC’s Pitcher of the Year, Dean decided to go with his southpaw Shelby Lowe, who began the first two games of the three-game series in Baton Rouge.
Given how many lefties LSU has in their lineup, what could we do to demonstrate to them a little different approach? After winning the first game of the series, Dean told Justin McLeod of D1 Softball, “Put them on edge a little bit.”
In Game 1, Lowe pitched 4⅓ innings and limited LSU’s offense to only two runs on five hits. Penta then entered the game to get the save and threw two perfect innings, striking out four batters.
Lowe made his long-awaited comeback to the circle on Sunday in the rematch after undergoing surgery two summers prior to address forearm problems.
The Carrollton native, who graduated from Pickens Academy, struck out four hitters and gave up just three hits and one earned run to help Auburn win its first SEC series of the year.
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