----With a Southern accent as thick as his analogy, Auburn University-Montgomery coach Q.V. Lowe called the Senators a team with a sweet tooth.
''We took a spoonful of honey and we liked it so well, we'd like to get us a whole jarful,'' Lowe said of his team's Area Five title, which earned it a trip to the NAIA World Series. ''We're like a bear that walked up to a honey tree, got a taste and now he'll tear the whole tree down if he has to.''
The Senators, 36-23, hope to continue their rampage today when they take on West Liberty State College of West Liberty, W.V. in Game 2 at 1 p.m.
It actually took AUM a while to find the honeycomb this season, as a 13-game losing skid midway through the season put the Senators' postseason plans in jeopardy. But they managed to regroup by district-tournament time and have gone undefeated since.
At the Area Seven tournament at Jacksonville, Fla., AUM defeated Berry College of Rome, Georgia, 3-2, then downed Cumberland University of Tennessee, 6-4 to meet defending area champion West Florida in the title contest.
There the Senators knocked off the Argonauts 9-7 and advanced to the Series for the first time in school history.
Only in their fourth year of existence, the Senators were a preseason District 27 favorite, and they did get out of the blocks fast.
''We got off to a real good start and at one point we were 23-6,'' said Lowe, who has been the AUM coach since the program, which has been dropped in the late 1970s, was reinstated. ''But then we hit some tough competition and dropped 13 in a row. So we went back to practice and talked fundamentals and turned it around.''
Fundamentals, and good recruiting, have been the cornerstones of AUM's rapid rise, according to two players who have been with the team all four years.
''It was hard that first year. We only won seven games,'' said first baseman Dandy Smith. ''But I felt like we were going to get better. Coach Lowe didn't really say anything to us about it, but his actions told us.''
