March 20, 2017
By Jeff Shearer
AuburnTigers.com
AUBURN, Ala. - It took something big to motivate Blake Logan to compose his first tweet in more than nine months. It took something that hadn't happened in 30 years, an Auburn sweep of Florida.
"Oh how SWEEP it is!!" the Auburn senior catcher tweeted Sunday, shortly after the Tigers' 6-5 walk-off win over Florida.
"Unbelievable atmosphere from the fans! No quit in our Auburn baseball team this weekend! #WarEagle"
Oh how SWEEP it is!! Unbelievable atmosphere from the fans! No quit in our @AuburnBaseball team this weekend! #WarEagle
- Blake Logan (@theblakelogan) March 19, 2017
Logan played a prominent role on Sunday with his first three-hit game of the season. He tripled and scored the tying run in the seventh inning.
"I thought it was going to go foul for a second," Logan said. "I saw him give the fair, so I thought, 'I'm at least at second. I kind of lost the ball so I picked up Sis (third base coach Doug Sisson) and he was giving me the green light, so I just put my head down and ran as fast as these old legs could go and was able to get in there. And then Jonah did a great job of getting me in and tying the game up."
Jonah Todd's sacrifice fly scored Logan to tie it at 5-5.
In the ninth, Logan delivered again with a leadoff single. After Will Holland's bunt single advanced Logan to second, pinch runner JJ Shaffer scored the winning run on a Florida throwing error.
For players with "catcher's speed," triples are rare. In January, the prospect of Logan playing a key role in a mid-March sweep of No. 5 Florida seemed unlikely.
Two months ago, Logan lacked the stamina to travel the required 270 feet around the bases from home to third.
An extended illness, marked by fever, required intravenous fluids for dehydration during a weeklong hospital stay. Logan beat the projected three-month recovery, but began the season feeling weak.
Now fully recovered, Logan is batting .393 with two doubles, one triple, one homer and seven RBI in his past 10 games.
Tasked with the freedom and responsibility to call pitches, a rarity in college baseball, Logan has caught five of Auburn's NCAA-leading seven shutouts.
Logan last tweeted on June 11, 2016, congratulating former Auburn pitcher Justin Camp on being drafted by the Kansas City Royals.
Auburn (17-5) seeks its eighth straight win Tuesday when the Tigers play at Georgia Tech at 5 p.m. It's Auburn's first road game after starting the season with 22 straight at Plainsman Park.
Blake Logan celebrates his triple in Auburn's win over Florida on Sunday." style="width:100%; height:auto;" class="imported_image" legacy-link="http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/aub/sports/m-basebl/auto_a_storywide/12545639.jpeg"> Blake Logan celebrates his triple in Auburn's win over Florida on Sunday.
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @jeff_shearer