Baseball Series Prep: Auburn

by Barca Blog (Photo by Steve Green)

After dropping their last two conference series, No. 18 Vanderbilt (27-8, 6-6 SEC) will look to rebound against No. 23 Auburn (23-11, 7-5) this weekend at Hawkins Field. The 'Dores and Tigers will open their set on Friday at 6 p.m. CT and will continue on Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. Tickets are still available, so reserve your seats through the Vanderbilt ticket office at (615) 322-GOLD or online at vucommodores.com.

Joe Fisher will provide the radio call on 560 AM for each contest. VUcommodores.com will offer free live video for Friday's and Saturday's games, while Sunday's action will be televised on ESPNU. For Twitter updates, follow @VandyBaseball.

Let's get ready for the matchup by looking at stories from around the web:

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Kendall Rogers of Rivals.com lists the matchup as one of 10 intriguing series to watch this weekend.

Jeff Lockridge of The Tennessean blogs about the battle between Auburn's big sticks and Vanderbilt's powerful pitching.

David Rutz of VUcommodores.com catches up with freshman outfielder Regan Flaherty in his weekly podcast.

Erin Prah of InsideVandy.com checks in with pitcher Corey Williams and his road to recovery after suffering a knee injury at Florida.

Andrew Gribble of Opelika-Auburn News says the Tigers still rely on small ball even with a high-powered offense.

Check out the official previews with game notes on VUcommodores.com and AuburnTigers.com.

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The probable weekend rotation is:

Friday at 6 p.m. CT
RHP Sonny Gray (4-4, 2.44) vs. LHP Cory Nelson (4-2, 4.61)

Saturday at 2 p.m. CT
RHP Jack Armstrong (5-0, 3.43) vs. TBA

Sunday at 1 p.m. CT
RHP Taylor Hill (3-3, 3.51)  vs. LHP Grant Dayton (4-1, 5.18)

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Quotable No. 1: ""We are having a hard time hitting right now but like free throw shooting or any other skill, it comes back to you. These kids are preparing and working at it hard, sometimes the cycle goes down before it comes back up." -- VU coach Tim Corbin on his team's offensive struggles

Quotable No. 2: "It is very unusual in college baseball this late in the season to have a team ERA that’s under 3.00. Obviously, when you start thinking about the strength of their club, they can really pitch and that’s why they’ve been successful, that’s what they’ve built their program around.” -- AU coach John Pawlowski on the Dores' pitching staff

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Around the SEC - SECSports.com
Alabama (22-12, 5-7) at LSU (27-6, 8-4)
Georgia (11-22, 3-9) at Arkansas (28-6, 9-3)
Florida (23-9, 8-4) at Kentucky (21-12, 4-8)
Ole Miss (23-11, 7-5) at South Carolina (26-7, 9-3)
Tennessee (17-17, 3-9) at Miss. State (17-16, 3-9)

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Video of the Day: Enough with Jumpin' Jeff Farmer and Motley Cruz... Richie Rouge wants to make a name for himself on the IPW circuit:

Auburn extras

by Barca Blog

Full Recap: Vanderbilt 82, Auburn 74

Speechless: After the Commodores were outworked and outhustled by the undersized Tigers in the first half Saturday, head coach Kevin Stallings did something unusual. Instead of chewing his team out in the locker room, he stayed silent while his assistant coaches handled the scolding.

"I told them that I wasn't going to get mad," Stallings said." It makes me feel too bad when I get mad, and I wasn't going to do it."

Stallings did get one point across without using his voice.

"(He) wrote the rebounding margin on the board," Brad Tinsley said. "We were outrebounded by 12. Our big guys just kind of took that personally and they really got after it in the second half."

Vanderbilt, who trailed by as many as 16 points in the first half, responded by outscoring (50-31) and outrebounding (18-10) Auburn in the final 20 minutes.

It just doesn't matter:  Stallings was asked after the game if he felt disrespected or bothered that the Commodores have been left out of the Top 25 during their nine-game winning streak.

"It doesn't matter to me," Stallings said. "I think we have a good team. I know the rubber is getting ready to meet the road. We'll find out how good here very shortly.

"It's nice recognition for the players. Do we deserve it? Probably. If you're 4-0 in this league, and 15-3, then you probably deserve to be ranked. I'm not going to complain about it because I know what's coming."

Join the club: With 14 points against Auburn, senior guard Jermaine Beal became the 40th player in school history to reach 1,000 points in his career.

Schulz's stat of the game: Vanderbilt is now 5-2 this season when trailing at the half. The Commodores have trailed at the half in three of its last four games, including its last two at home.

Quotable: "I went back and checked this, and since I've been here, the number of times we've either played Tennessee or Kentucky and/or Florida, two of those three back-to-back, and this is my 11th year, I want to say is 16 times. It almost seems intentional. I know that there's nobody down there that has it in for us.  We don't cause any problems around here. But that's a lot, wouldn't you think?" -- Stallings on if he knew who his enemy was in the league office after getting Tennessee and Kentucky on the road this week.

Photo by Steve Green