AUBURN | Getting out of Starkville with a win and avoiding a sweep was big for Auburn, which finished the first half of conference play 8-7.

If they can repeat that in the second half, they’ll be a lock for the postseason.

The series went a lot like the previous three series except for the opener, which AU lost by run one, due in part to a defensive lapse, after winning the last three 6-5, 6-5 and 5-1.

The middle game has been the biggest struggle for the Tigers, being out-scored 42-15 in four consecutive losses.

That should be shored up for this weekend’s home series against South Carolina with Joseph Gonzalez expected to move a day up in the rotation. The sophomore is now 5-0 on the season with a 2.01 ERA.

He’s also combined to throw 17 of 18 innings in his last two wins, which is a big boost to an Auburn bullpen that lacks a lot of quality arms.

Having Hayden Mullins go in game one and Trace Bright in game three should better allow bullpen standouts Carson Skipper and Blake Burkhalter to make two meaningful appearances in a weekend.

At the plate, AU could desperately use better production out of the catcher position and the clean-up hitter behind Sonny DiChiara in the lineup.

Nate LaRue has provided good defensive work behind the plate, but is batting just .136 in conference play. Ryan Dyal is hitting .182 in SEC games while Jake Wyandt, who was signed more for his defensive play, has just one SEC at-bat.

DiChiara, who is seeing less and less pitches in the strike zone, didn’t have an extra-base hit, struck out three times and walked six times against the Bulldogs.

Brooks Carlson and Cam Hill have been the main No. 4 hitters but have combined for one home run in 67 SEC at-bats. Bryson Ware has plenty of power and made a great game-winning throw to the plate to end Saturday’s game against MSU, but is hitting just .111 with 11 strikeouts in 19 at-bats in conference games.

If LaRue or Dyal could step up, and one of Carlson, Hill or Ware start consistently driving the ball, this lineup could be a lot more dangerous in the second half.

***

And they’re off.

Auburn’s assistant coaches have officially hit the road for the start of the evaluation period and will spend the first two weeks visiting every high school in the state of Alabama in what is being called Tiger Takeover.

It’s another very smart recruiting move.

The last month and a half has seen Bryan Harsin and his staff really turn up the intensity in recruiting by bringing in a number of talented prospects to campus.

It culminated in a commitment from Rivals100 safety Terrance Love last week. Now comes the next phase.

By putting such a priority on in-state schools in the first part of the contact period, Harsin is now addressing the second of two major recruiting deficiencies that were notable a couple of months ago — a Junior Day that lacked much star power and having failed to build relationships with enough in-state high school coaches.

They took a first big step in building those relationships with a successful and well-attended coaching clinic a couple of weeks ago.

By the end of this month, I think both those criticisms can be put to bed.

Of course, this staff still has a ways to go before it can compete regularly on the recruiting trail with perennial top five powers Alabama, Georgia, Clemson and Ohio State, not to mention LSU and now Texas A&M, but this is a step forward in achieving what should be top priority for this staff.

Auburn cannot compete on a regular basis with those schools, which means it can’t regularly compete for championships, until the talent gap is much closer.

Aggressive recruiting with Harsin at the forefront, as we’ve seen over the last couple of months, is the only way to accomplish that goal in the short and long term.

This is what Auburn’s football program needs. Now, it’s about execution.

***

In today’s musical journey, we go back 35 years to the return of the Queen of Soul to the top of the charts after a 20-year hiatus. On April 18, 1987, I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me), a duet by Aretha Franklin and George Michael, rose to No. 1 on the Billboard 100. It’s Franklin’s first No. 1 since 1967’s Respect, with the 20-year gap the longest between No. 1’s in music history. Franklin is one of the world’s most successful music artists with 112 charted singles, 20 No. 1 R&B singles, 18 Grammy Awards and 75 million in record sales. Rolling Stone ranked Franklin as the No. 1 Greatest Singer of All Time and she was the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

Franklin was born in Memphis, Tenn., in 1942 to a Baptist minister father and mother who played the piano and sang. She eventually moved to Detroit at age 5. Shortly after her mother passed away in 1952, Franklin started singing gospel music at her father’s church, New Bethel. She signed her first contract at age 12 and recorded nine gospel songs and also began touring on the gospel circuit where she came in contact with a number of current and future stars including Quincy Ones, Mavins Staples, Dinah Washington and Marvin Gaye. She toured with Martin Luther King Jr. at age 16 and a decade later would sing at his funeral. After turning 18, she moved to New York and began a pop career, signing with Columbia and releasing her first album in 1961. She released nine albums under Columbia but didn’t have her first No. 1 hit until a move to Atlantic Records and the release of 1967’s I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You), which was recorded at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala. Her first Atlantic album also included her signature song, Respect, which was originally written and recorded by Otis Redding, and (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman. It catapulted her to diva status and she released two more top-selling albums and won her first two Grammys in 1968. Her success continued until she hit a lull in the mid-1970’s with the rise of the disco era, but got back on track with a move to Arista Records and the release of two albums in the mid-1980’s, which included the hits Who’s Zoomin Who, Freeway of Love and I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me).

Michael had recently left Wham! and was looking to launch his solo career. Franklin’s producer and label boss, Clive Davis, suggested they work together. The song, written by Dennis Morgan and Simon Climie, was not originally meant to be a duet. It was first pitched to Tina Turner, but it was Davis who thought it would be best as a duet. It ended up being Michael’s third consecutive No. 1 hit following Wham!’s Careless Whisper and A Different Corner. While it was Franklin’s last No. 1 hit, she remained very active touring, performing in musicals and singing at Super Bowls and Barack Obama’s inaugural ceremony. She was very involved in the civil rights and women’s rights movements along with Native American rights. She was married twice and divorced twice and had four children. She started experiencing health problems in 2010 and had a tumor removed the following year. Franklin passed away in 2018 at the age of 76 due to pancreatic cancer and was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Detroit. She was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Price in 2019 and inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2020. A movie about her remarkable life, Respect, starring Jennifer Hudson, was released in 2021.