AUBURN, Ala. – No. 6 Auburn (27-12) wraps up its four-game road trip with a matchup against Samford (20-18) Tuesday at 6 p.m. CT at the Hoover Met.
The game will be broadcast on the Auburn Sports Network and can be heard locally on Wings 94.3 FM. There will be no digital stream of the game.
PROBABLE STARTERS
Tuesday – Jr. LHP Griffin Graves (1-0, 7.36) vs. R-So. LHP Palmer O’Beirne (1-0, 5.40)
QUICK HITTERS
Auburn’s series win at Florida marked the program’s first in Gainesville since 2013.
The Tigers are one of three SEC programs to win their last three series - Texas A&M (4), Ole Miss (3).
The team is 17-4 in non-conference games this season, including 4-1 in non-conference games away from home.
Mason McCraine was named the SEC Freshman of the Week for the second time after hitting three homers and driving in seven runs in the series win at Florida.
McCraine’s honor is the sixth weekly award for Auburn in 10 weeks of competition.
Auburn’s pitching staff is the national leader in strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.21), WHIP (1.13) and walks allowed per 9.0 innings (2.61) while ranking second in shutouts (6) and third in ERA (3.29).
Griffin Graves will make his second career start after throwing 3.0 shutout innings last Tuesday.
Since scoring seven runs in four games from Mar. 27-31, Auburn has scored 80 runs in the last 11.
The team has homered 11 times in the last five games after homering 10 times in 18 games from Mar. 13-Apr. 11.
The Tigers are 25-0 when outhitting the opponent this season and 129-16 in the last five years.
Auburn is 81-25-1 all-time against Samford, including 29-9 against the Bulldogs away from home.
SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS
Samford enters the week with a 20-18 overall record and 8-4 mark in SoCon play. The team is coming off a weekend sweep against UNC Greensboro, including a 14-1 run-rule victory in the finale Sunday.
Offensively, Samford is hitting .291 as a team and has scored 236 runs on 365 hits, including 54 doubles, eight triples and 54 home runs. Sophomore infielder Jake Sounders leads the team and ranks 19th in the country with a .404 average. Outfielder Luke Boykin leads the team with 11 home runs and 41 RBI.
On the mound, Samford has a 6.22 staff ERA with 321 strikeouts and 160 walks in 316.2 innings pitched. Tuesday starter Palmer O’Beirne is 1-0 with a 5.40 ERA and 16 strikeouts to 11 walks in 13.1 innings pitched.