Last season was one to forget for the Auburn Tigers baseball program. Butch Thompson’s group went 8-22 in SEC play and was one of two teams not to make the trip to Hoover, AL for the SEC Tournament.
No. 25 Auburn led by slugger Cooper McMurray will look to get off to a strong start as they host No. 16 Vanderbilt this weekend to kick off SEC play.
Auburn enters its SEC opener with a 14-3 record. The Tigers have picked up two ranked wins on the season thus far, coming against No. 24 Troy and No. 9 Oregon State.
McMurray, a redshirt senior, has been Auburn’s most productive hitter in the young season. McMurray is batting .415 on the year, with 22 RBI’s, and six home runs. He will look to repeat his explosive ‘24 SEC performance, having hit seven home runs in conference play, tying him for the team lead. He will need to carry the load this weekend as Auburn will be without C/OF Ike Irish who suffered a fractured scapula.
The Tigers’ pitching staff was their Achilles heel last season, putting up a 5.94 ERA as a unit. Those issues were addressed this offseason bringing in Cade Fisher (Florida), Samuel Dutton (LSU), Jett Johnston (Texas A&M), and Ryan Hetzler (Cal Baptist) among others from the transfer portal. Auburn’s three starters in this weekend’s series are as follows: Dutton, Fisher, and Christian Chatterton.
Head Coach Thompson will give the ball to his ace Dutton Friday night to set the tone for the SEC clash. The senior from Southside, AL has had an impressive start to the ‘25 campaign putting up a 1.31 ERA in four starts.
The “VandyBoys” also enter the SEC opening weekend with a 14-3 record. The Commodores are 1-2 against power conference opponents this season with their lone win against UCLA in late February.
Vanderbilt is looking for revenge this season after falling in the SEC tournament semifinals last year to the eventual national champion Tennesee Volunteers.
The top of the Commodores lineup features freshman Brodie Johnston and junior Riley Nelson. Coming out of high school Johnston was ranked the No. 1 overall prospect in Tennessee, and the No. 75 overall prospect nationally. Johnston is off to a hot start at the collegiate level batting .383 with three home runs on the year. This past week he earned SEC co-freshman of the week honors, after going 8-15 at the dish with 10 RBI’s.
Nelson is hitting .390 on the year with 19 RBI’s in 59 at bats. This will be Nelson’s first taste of SEC baseball after playing his first two years at the JUCO level with Western Texas College and Yavapai College. Last season at Yavapai, he earned first-team all-conference and first-team all-region honors. He posted an absurd .412 batting average and drove in 55 RBI’s. Nelson is very reliable in the field, making just one error in 311 total chances last year.
The Commodores pitching staff is led by southpaw JD Thompson, Ethan McElvain, and Cody Bowker.
Thompson is an experienced ball player in the SEC, making his first career start at the SEC Tournament in 2023. Coming into this season he was ranked the No. 12 starting pitcher in D1Baseball’s preseason rankings. He will get the start Friday night in game one.
McElvain, another southpaw, will start the second game of the series. He has had multiple rough outings already this season giving up 11 earned runs in 11.1 innings pitched.
Bowker, the Georgetown transfer, leads the group of three with a 1.89 ERA in four starts. He will get the ball Sunday afternoon.
Auburn will look to win game one Friday night at 6:00 p.m. CST and set the tone for conference play. The game is available to stream on ESPN+.
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Rory is a freshman majoring in journalism sports production. He started with The Plainsman in the spring of 2025.
You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @RorymGarvin
