BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A trio of Auburn Tigers in Bryson Ware, Ike Irish and Kason Howell earned All-SEC honors, the Southeastern Conference office announced Monday.
Ware was named Second Team All-SEC while Irish earned All-Freshman Team honors and Howell made the All-Defensive Team.
Ware finished the regular season in the top 10 in the league in hits (73), runs (61), home runs (21), RBI (57) and slugging percentage (.730) while also finishing just outside of the top 10 with a career-best .358 batting average. Additionally, he led the team in nearly every offensive category in league play, including average (.333), runs (38), hits (40), home runs (12) and total bases (80), all of which also ranked in the top 10 in the league.
Ware set the tone for his season by starting the year with a 34-game reached base streak and went on an 18-game hitting streak from Mar. 14-Apr. 14, marking the longest hitting streak by an Auburn player since 2015-16. After homering seven times in the first 12 games of the year, the Madison, Mississippi, native has totaled 21 home runs this season, becoming the seventh player in program history to hit 20 home runs in a single season. His 21 home runs are tied with Frank Thomas (1987) and Josh Etheredge (1995) for the fifth most in program history.
Along with his All-SEC honors, Ware has also been named to the Golden Spikes Award midseason watch list and a semifinalist for the Dick Howser Trophy.
A three-time SEC Freshman of the Week, Irish has made an instant impact on the Plains and capped off the regular season tied for the fifth most hits in the league (79), including the second most among SEC freshmen and the sixth most among freshmen nationally. His 21 doubles rank third in the league and lead all freshmen nationally, while he also ranks 10th in the SEC in batting average (.364).
A native of Hudsonville, Michigan, Irish came to Auburn as the No. 39 overall player in the 2022 class according to Perfect Game and lived up to his billing immediately as he recorded 13 multi-hit efforts in his first 17 games in the orange and blue. He has a team-best 26 multi-hit games this season, including 10 games with three or more hits.
Irish has homered in bunches this season as all six of his home runs have come in two separate spans of four games and three games. He has a pair of game-winning hits, including a walk-off single against Lipscomb on Mar. 4 and two-RBI single in the eighth inning last Saturday vs. Missouri.
A staple in center field since the day he stepped foot on campus, Howell's 243 career games played are the third most in program history, and he has played in 165 of the last 166 games dating back to 2021.
As steady as the come, Howell has turned in a .993 fielding percentage this season, committing just one error in 149 chances, and has registered three outfield assists. He is a career .989 fielder with just seven errors in his 243 games played, including only four in the last three seasons, and has totaled 13 outfield assists since 2019.
Along with approaching the games played record, Howell is the NCAA active leader and is tied with Todd Faulkner for the program record with 71 career doubles. He joins Rob Macrory (1994-97) as the only two Auburn players to start in multiple College World Series appearances.
Ware, Irish, Howell and No. 19 Auburn (33-19-1, 17-13 SEC) begin the SEC Tournament with a fourth consecutive matchup against Missouri (30-23, 10-20 SEC) Tuesday in Hoover.