After suffering a rough 8–0 home loss against the Cincinnati Bearcats on Tuesday, the Auburn Tigers baseball team will be looking to rebound from their first loss of the year at the 2026 Amegy Bank College Baseball Series in Arlington, Texas, this coming weekend. Auburn will also be hoping to ignite its offense, which was highly touted heading into the year but has gotten off to a slow start. The Tigers have scored more than two runs only once in their first four games to begin the season.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, their best returning offensive player, sophomore infielder Chris Rembert, will be unavailable for the tournament after injuring his ankle while attempting to steal second base last weekend against Youngstown State. With Rembert out, Auburn will be hoping its other returning bats in the lineup step up. Sophomore outfielder Bub Terrell has been on an offensive tear to begin the year, maintaining a .417 batting average through his first four games of the season, including notching two doubles against the Bearcats on Tuesday. Sophomore catcher Chase Fralick has also gotten off to an incredibly hot start, collecting eight hits in his first 15 recorded at-bats, good for a .533 batting average so far this year.
Auburn’s offense will need to be in top gear as it takes on three historically solid baseball programs in Kansas State, Florida State, and Louisville, all of which made it to regionals in last year’s College World Series.
Kansas State has been absolutely dominant on offense in its first four games, scoring 10 or more runs in three of the four, including an incredible 24–5 win over Penn State last Sunday. Junior infielder Dee Kennedy has already recorded three home runs and two doubles while driving in 15 runs in four games for the Wildcats. Auburn will need its pitching to continue its strong start to the season and its offense to wake up if it hopes to come out victorious in its first game of the series on Friday.
Florida State, too, is coming into the tournament undefeated after taking down James Madison twice on opening weekend and defeating Jacksonville earlier this week. As has become a common sight for Seminoles teams, FSU’s pitching staff is full of potential MLB draft prospects, including a strong left-handed junior duo in Trey Beard and Wes Mendes. Seminoles first baseman Myles Bailey is also a significant home run threat the Tigers need to be aware of.
Louisville, similar to the Tigers, has not had the start to the season it wanted after dropping two out of three games against Michigan State in its opening series. However, the Cardinals are coming off an absolute dismantling of Xavier in which they put up 23 runs; they have likely regained some momentum. Louisville will be without star outfielder Zion Rose due to injury, but fellow outfielder Lucas Moore could still pose some offensive challenges for the Tigers. Moore is batting .450 to begin the year, with a home run and a triple in his first four games played.
Auburn baseball will face its biggest test of the season so far this weekend, and the results could be a strong predictor of how SEC play will unfold for an Auburn team hoping to make it to Omaha for the first time since 2022.
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Jonathan is a freshman majoring in industrial and systems engineering. He started with The Plainsman in the fall of 2025.
