AUBURN, Ala. – Embarking on its fifth SEC road trip against a ranked opponent, No. 2 Auburn (37-15, 16-11 SEC) wraps up the regular season with a series at No. 22 Ole Miss (35-17, 14-13 SEC) Thursday through Saturday in Oxford, Mississippi.
First pitches at Swayze Field as scheduled for Thursday at 6:30 p.m. CT, Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
“I’m no expert, but it looks like almost every team in our league is playing for everything,” head coach Butch Thompson said. “We’re in a position where we’re in a three-way tie, and things can happen where you can be here or there. I told the team it’s how we play. There’s no more big games. We’ve played so many. There’s just another game, another series. I’m excited to play these guys. They’re great at home.”
All three games will be broadcast on the Auburn Sports Network and can be heard locally on Wings 94.3 FM. Game two will be broadcast nationally on SEC Network, and games one and three will be streamed digitally on SEC Network+.
PROBABLE STARTERS
Thursday – So. RHP Cam Tilly (3-1, 4.38) vs. R-Jr. LHP Hunter Elliott (7-3, 3.66)
Friday – Sr. RHP Samuel Dutton (6-2, 2.86) vs. Sr. RHP Riley Maddox (5-5, 5.46)
Saturday – Fr. RHP Christian Chatterton (4-1, 4.10) vs. Sr. RHP Mason Nichols (3-2, 5.36)
QUICK HITTERS
Auburn enters the weekend 16-11 in SEC play, marking the best conference record entering the final weekend of the regular season since 2010 (17-10).
The 37 regular season wins are tied (2018, 2022) for the most since 2010 (39).
The Tigers have won seven of nine SEC series this season and nine of 11 dating back to last year.
This weekend marks Auburn’s fifth SEC road trip against a ranked opponent.
The Tigers are 15-10 against ranked opponents this season, including 6-8 away from home.
Auburn is 12-6 since being swept at No. 2 Georgia and 7-2 since being swept at No. 1 Texas.
The offense has scored 65 runs on 67 hits, including 30 extra-base hits, in the last four games.
The 65 runs over a four-game span are the most since Feb. 8-12, 2000 (75).
Eric Guevara was named the SEC and Perfect Game Player of the Week after going 12-for-15 with seven runs, two doubles, one triple, two homers and nine RBI vs. South Carolina.
Auburn trails the all-time series 93-99-1 and is 36-54-1 against the Rebels in Oxford.
The Tigers swept Ole Miss last time at Swayze, marking the first series in win Oxford since 2012.
SCOUTING THE REBELS
Ole Miss enters the weekend with a 35-17 overall record and 14-13 mark in SEC play, good for ninth in the league. The Rebels have won four of their nine series thus far.
Offensively, Ole Miss is hitting .284 as a team, including .265 in SEC play, and ranks top 10 in the country with 97 home runs. Junior infielder Luke Hill leads the way with a .342 average, 35 points higher than the next best hitter, while fellow junior infielder Judd Utermark leads the team with 49 RBI and is tied for second with 14 home runs.
On the mound, the Rebels have turned in a .455 staff ERA with 553 strikeouts and 202 walks in 451.0 innings pitched. The team ranks top 10 in the country in strikeouts per 9.0 innings pitched (11.0), and the weekend rotation has been in place all 13 weeks.