The 3 Strikes: Previewing Auburn baseball's pivotal series at Florida
There's a great divide forming in the SEC standings, and the Tigers need a good showing in Gainesville to get on the right side of it.
AUBURN — If there’s one thing Butch Thompson knows, it’s history.
Thompson, who graduated with a degree in that subject, is entering his 24th season coaching in the SEC.
So, naturally, Thompson tapped into his geography bag to explain the importance of his team coming together as a unit as they tackle the back half of SEC play.
“I put it up to be the continental divide today,” Thompson said following Auburn’s win over Alabama State on Tuesday night. “From the Bering Strait up in Alaska, all the way down to the Strait of Magellan in South America and the highest point being the Rocky Mountains there in Colorado — the water, it’s amazing. As it falls on this side, it rolls to the Pacific. It falls on this side, it rolls to the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf, or the Hudson Bay.
“We need everything to roll one way, because everybody’s at this midway point. You got like our whole league sitting here with so much to play for, but it’s a divide. I think the teams that get the closest unite the most, and I want that stuff to fall our way, because you need water to survive.”
As it stands currently, three SEC teams have nine conference wins. Four teams, including Auburn, sit with eight. Five more teams have seven wins.
In other words, the conference is as even as it can possibly get. But, as Thompson noted, it won’t stay that way.
“There’s about to be a divide where people are going to fall off one way and go another way,” Thompson said. “So I believe in the Continental, the great divide. And I think that’s about to happen, and I want our guys to be on the right side of it. And I think we’re going to have to do this as one.”
And with Thompson being the history buff that he is, there’s one thing he’s certain of: He has no idea what to expect over the next five weeks. All he and his team can do is control themselves.
“Nobody in our league, a coach or a player, knows what’s about to happen this weekend with the way this stuff is going,” Thompson said. “But I can talk about like, ‘Hey, let’s quit beating each other up. We’ve played enough baseball. This is who we are, and we’re about to roll with it.’ So when somebody makes a mistake, jump right back in there.
“We’ve done this. We will look up at the end of five weeks and see where this thing’s at. But I don’t want half of us going this way to the Pacific, half of us going this way to the Atlantic. Whichever way we’re going, we’re going to go all together, but we got to be committed to one another.”
Auburn’s first shot at attempting to be on the right side of the divide will involve a trip directly to a different divide — the eastern one — as the Tigers travel to Gainesville to take on a fellow Florida team that is 9-6 in conference play, but is coming off a midweek loss to Bethune Cookman.
“I know we’re going to see great arms,” Thompson said. “We’re going to see a hitter (Brendan Lawson) that’s just at the top of the food chain in our league and just an athletic team all over the field. So I know that every time I prepare and watch.”
For a full breakdown of this pivotal series against Florida starting Thursday night, here is the latest edition of The 3 Strikes preview.
Auburn’s starting pitching will face a different type of test
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