Auburn baseball wasn't supposed to start 19-2.
The Tigers were picked sixth in the seven-team SEC West division in the preseason and were not expected to compete with the big-name powerhouse programs in the conference.
In its first opportunity to prove those projections wrong, Auburn bested No. 6 Texas A&M at Plainsman Park, taking games one and two over the Aggies. For their best start in over a decade, the Tigers earned spots in the top 10 of college baseball's national rankings.
.@OhioState_BASE is 14-6 and has the second-best record in the Big Tenhttps://t.co/X3of06dK4o
— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) March 19, 2018
Auburn enters D1 Baseball's Top 25 at No. 9, while Butch Thompson's team sits at No. 6 in Baseball America's poll. The Tigers jumped six spots in D1 Baseball's rankings from No. 15 and seven spots from No. 13 in Baseball America's.
As expected, Auburn is fueled by top MLB prospect Casey Mize. After tossing Auburn's first no-hitter in since 2002 in a win over Northeastern on March 9, Mize rifled a career-high 13 strikeouts for the second-straight start in the Game 1 victory over Texas A&M.
Now 5-0 with an ERA of 1.93 in 2018, Mize was named the SEC's Pitcher of the Week for the second-straight week. Mize is the first player in the conference to win the award in back-to-back weeks since Vanderbilt's Carson Fulmer in 2015.
Mize touts 51 strikeouts with only three walks in 32.2 innings of work this season. The Tigers will look for win No. 20 Tuesday at Georgia Tech, with the first pitch scheduled for 5 p.m. CT in Atlanta.
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