Just two weeks ago, the Auburn Tigers were in a position few would relish. Butch Thompson’s team sat at a 7-11 conference record and was projected by many as on the bubble for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament with a road series against No. 2 South Carolina and a date with the No. 1 LSU Tigers inside Plainsman Park next on the schedule.
Auburn responded to the challenge. In back-to-back weekends, the Tigers took down the top two teams in the country winning two of three in each series, and are now the only team in the SEC to have won three straight SEC series. The team’s 6-3 record in the second half of SEC play is one game behind LSU and Tennessee for the best in the league during the span.
After a stretch of competing against the top two teams this season, Auburn will head a state over to play the reigning national champions, the Ole Miss Rebels. Despite the storybook ending to last season, the Rebels sit in the bottom spot of the SEC West standings with a 25-23 overall record and 6-18 mark in SEC play with a threat to not qualify for the SEC Tournament in Hoover later this month.
The Rebels feature an offensive with the sixth-best batting average in the league at .292 and are led by Kemp Alderman in average (.377), hits (72), home runs (19) and RBIs (59). On the mound, the Rebels have turned in a 7.11 ERA in SEC competition.
The Tigers will go with the same three starting pitchers as a weekend ago with Chase Allsup on Thursday night, Tommy Vail on Friday, and Christian Herberholz on Saturday. The three turned in a 2.77 ERA last weekend, allowing four earned runs in 13.0 innings pitched.
Auburn’s pitching staff held LSU’s offense, the second-highest scoring team in the country entering last weekend, to a season-low 11 runs in the series, giving the staff a 3.12 ERA.
Auburn will look to keep the bats hot after scoring 12 runs against LSU to close out the last weekend’s series. The Tigers are one of four teams in the SEC with five players with 30 or more starts hitting .300 or better: Bobby Peirce (.365), Ike Irish (.359), Bryson Ware (.348), Cole Foster (.314) and Cooper McMurray (.309).
Ole Miss has won seven of its last eight games against Auburn and has not lost a series in Oxford, Mississippi to the Tigers since 2012. First pitches at Swayze Field are scheduled for Thursday at 7 p.m. CST, Friday at 6:30 p.m. CST and Saturday at 2 p.m. CST.
Thursday’s matchup will air on ESPNU, with Friday's game to stream on the SEC Network+ and Saturday's game to air on the SEC Network.
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Patrick is a sophomore from Auburn, Alabama, double majoring in journalism and marketing. He started with The Plainsman in fall 2022.
