No. 8 Auburn baseball travels to Austin, TX to take on a new conference opponent, the No. 1 Texas Longhorns as the Tigers look to extend their six-game win streak against the Longhorns this weekend.
The weekend series this Thursday-Saturday will be the first between the two programs.
In the Tigers' latest SEC series, they battled the No. 3 LSU Tigers. After defeating LSU 8-4 and then 4-2, Auburn, presented with the chance to sweep LSU for the first time since 1988, sealed the sweep with a 3-2 victory on Sunday.
After Auburn's first SEC series sweep of the season, they traveled in-state to Jacksonville, AL to take on Jacksonville State. In a tight game, Lucas Steele hit a solo home run in the top of the ninth inning to give the Tigers a 4-3 victory over the Gamecocks.
The Longhorns traveled to Lexington, KY to face the Wildcats and came away with a 2-1 series victory. This victory moved them into sole possession of first place at 13-2 in conference play.
Texas also welcomed UT Rio Grande Valley to a mid-week contest, and the Longhorns won 11-4.
Players to watch:
Auburn: Ike Irish
The junior catcher/outfielder had his seven-game hit streak snapped on Tuesday by Jacksonville State, yet he has been red hot for the Tigers this season. In the Tigers' midweek game against No. 15 Georgia Tech, Irish went 2-for-3 and drove in the game-winning run with an RBI single in Auburn’s three-run eighth inning.
Irish was excellent in the series victory over LSU with his highlight hit, a bases-clearing triple, to extend Auburn’s lead from two runs to five in the fifth inning of the team’s series-opening win against LSU. He finished the series with four total hits and three RBI against LSU.
The Tigers will need their star power to continue to produce if they want to keep the win streak rolling against the No. 1 team in the country.
Texas: Ryan Galvan
Similar to Auburn’s Ike Irish, the Longhorns' junior outfielder has been the star for Texas this season and is near the top of the conference in multiple statistics.
Galvan, in the Longhorns series against Kentucky, tallied five total hits, two RBI, and a home run, all while only striking out a single time.
With a .504 on-base percentage and 1.269 slugging percentage, Galvan finds himself in the top five in the SEC for on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and on-base plus slugging percentage.
He is riding a four-game hit streak after two more hits against UTRGV and will test the hot Tigers' pitching staff.
The first-ever meeting between the Longhorns and Tigers begins with a three-game series that will start on Thursday and end on Saturday. The first pitch is scheduled for April 17 at 7 p.m. CST. All three games can be seen on SEC Network+.
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
Craig Noyes is a senior from Kensington, Maryland, majoring in journalism. He joined The Plainsman in January 2023.
You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @CraigNoyes58
