Next weekend from Feb. 14 to Feb. 16, the Auburn baseball team will be playing in the Snowbird Classic in Port Charlotte, Fla. to open up their 2014 season.
Head coach Sunny Golloway announced the pitching rotation for the opening series, which features two seniors and a true freshman.
Coming off of an impressive fall scrimmage season with a 1.71 earned run average (ERA) and a 2-1 record last spring, senior RHP Dillon Ortman will get the opening day start on the mound Feb. 14 against Indiana State.
As expected, senior LHP Michael O'Neal will continue to start on Saturday games, like he did last spring, with a start Saturday, Feb. 15 vs. Ohio State. O'Neal led the Tigers' pitching staff last season with an 8-4 record and a 2.73 ERA.
"I always like to throw your best guy on Saturday. Is (O'Neal) our best guy? I don't know for sure," Golloway said. "But I know he threw well last year on Saturday so I'm not going to try to mess with that, if it's not broke don't fix it type attitude."
For the Sunday game against University of Connecticut, freshman RHP Keegan Thompson will make his collegiate pitching debut.
Golloway is confident in Thompson's abilities on the mound, at the plate and at first base.
"He's shown us a glimpse of maybe what Tim Hudson was back in the day and that's saying a lot," Golloway said. "If he's not pitching until Sunday we can protect the arm at first base if he wins that starting job. But so far he's shown me that we need to have his bat in the lineup, he means an awful lot."
Thompson is looking forward to the challenge of potentially starting at multiple positions in his first year.
"It's going to be fun. It's going to be kind of difficult going from pitching to hitting to first base and getting practice work in at every position," Thompson said. "But I'm doing the best I can and hoping it'll work out for the best."
Auburn will play eight televised baseball games in 2014
The 2014 SEC baseball television schedule was also announced today. Auburn will play eight televised games this season, including six at home in Plainsman Park.
ESPNU's Thursday Night SEC Baseball Game of the Week will begin Thursday, March 27, with a matchup featuring Missouri at Auburn at 7:30 p.m. ET. The Thursday Night SEC Baseball Game of the Week will run eight weeks through May 15.
Auburn will make another national TV on Saturday, April 19, when Auburn's home game against South Carolina will be on the CBS Sports Network.
Here is the full schedule of Auburn's televised games this season:
Sat., March 22 - at Tennessee - 3 p.m. (CSS)\0x2028
Thu., March 27 - Missouri - 6:30 p.m. (ESPNU)
Sat., March 29 - Missouri - Noon (FSN)
Sun., April 6 - at Ole Miss - 1:30 p.m. (CSS)
Sat., April 19 - South Carolina - 4 p.m. (CBS Sports Network)
Sun., April 20 - South Carolina - 1 p.m. (CSS)
Sat., May 3 - Mississippi State - 6 p.m. (CSS)
Sat., May 17 - LSU - 1 p.m. (FSN)
Final scrimmages this weekend
This weekend, Auburn will have its final three intrasquad scrimmages with games each day at Plainsman Park on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m.
All of these scrimmages are free and open to the public for any fans interested in getting a preview of the 2014 Auburn baseball team before they open up the season on Feb. 14.
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