GREENSBORO, N.C. – Auburn’s quartet of Ike Irish, Samuel Dutton, Cooper McMurray and Chase Fralick earned All-Southeast Region honors announced by the American Baseball Coaches Association Tuesday.
Irish and Dutton earned first-team recognition as an outfielder and starting pitcher, respectively, and will go on the All-America ballot to be voted on by the committee later this week. McMurray and Fralick earned second-team honors at first base and catcher.
The four all-region honorees are the second most in program history, surpassed only by the five honorees in 1995.
Irish was named First Team All-Southeast Region for the second straight year, becoming the first Auburn player since Casey Mize in 2017-18 to earn the distinction in back-to-back seasons. The junior led the team in multiple offensive categories including average (.364), on-base percentage (.469), slugging percentage (.710), runs (65), hits (78), home runs (19) and total bases (152) while ranking second in RBI (58) and third in stolen bases (11). After three standout seasons on The Plains, Irish became the fifth player in program history to amass at least 200 hits, 45 doubles, 35 home runs and 150 RBI – joining Frank Thomas (1987-89), Josh Etheredge (1995-98), Todd Faulkner (1998-2001) and Gabe Gross (1999-2001) on the list.
Dutton becomes Auburn first starting pitcher to earn first-team recognition since Mize in 2018 after previously becoming the first starting pitcher to earn first or second team All-SEC honors since that same season. For much of the regular season, Dutton ranked top 10 in the SEC in ERA, innings pitched and strikeouts while his innings pitched (85.2) and strikeout (95) totals were the most by an Auburn pitcher since 2018 and 2019, respectively. During a five-start stretch from Apr. 4-May 2, four of which came against top-10 opponents, Dutton went 3-0 with a 1.44 ERA with 36 strikeouts and dive walks in 31.1 innings pitched.
McMurray wrapped up his third season on The Plains with a career-best campaign, registering career highs in nearly every offensive category including average (.326), runs (50), hits (76), doubles (19), RBI (59) and total bases (137) while tying for his career best with 14 home runs. The redshirt senior became the fourth player in program history to hit 10 or more home runs in three straight seasons and finished the year in the top 10 among active SEC players in career home runs (51), RBI (183) and walks (154). His 42 home runs in an Auburn uniform are good for sixth in program history, including the most since 2010.
Fralick finished his freshman season ranked third on the team in average (.335) and was one of two true freshmen to earn All-Southeast Region recognition. He started in 58 of 61 games, including 48 starts behind the plate, and totaled 71 hits, 17 doubles, four home runs and 41 RBI while reaching base at a .426 clip. One of three Auburn players to earn SEC All-Freshman Team honors, Fralick upped his average to .343 in 29 league games, and all 17 SEC wins came with him behind the plate. He caught a team-high eight base stealers and turned in a .991 fielding percentage at the position.