AUBURN, Ala. – In its final Southeastern Conference road series of the season, No. 5 Auburn (33-14, 14-10 SEC) faces its fourth straight top-10 opponent with a showdown at No. 10 Mississippi State (37-12, 14-10 SEC) Thursday through Saturday in Starkville, Mississippi.
First pitches at Dudy Noble Field are scheduled for Thursday at 7 p.m. CT, Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 3 p.m.
“It’s down to the grind, and we have to do more,” head coach Butch Thompson said. “I do think we’re set up enough and have done enough that we know we’re in the postseason now, but we’re playing for so much. We’re playing a team with an identical SEC record as us. Are they going to slot above us or slot behind us? It was the same way at Texas A&M last week.
“(Mississippi State has) one of the best rosters, and they hired an amazing coach,” Thompson added. “We’re going to go there, and they’re going to be lathered up and excited just like College Station was last week. We have to stick to the effort and not take the foot off the gas.”
The games will be broadcast on the Auburn Sports Network and can be heard locally on Wings 94.3 FM. All three contests will also be broadcast on national TV with Thursday airing on ESPN2 and Friday and Saturday airing on SEC Network.
PROBABLE STARTERS
Thursday – So. LHP Jake Marciano (4-3, 2.26) vs. So. LHP Tomas Valincius (7-2, 2.37)
Friday – So. RHP Andreas Alvarez (8-2, 2.56) vs. So. RHP Duke Stone (6-1, 4.40)
Saturday – R-So. RHP Alex Petrovic (7-2, 3.14) vs. TBA
QUICK HITTERS
Auburn enters the week as the only SEC team with five straight series wins.
The Tigers haven’t won six straight SEC series since doing so to end 2010 and begin 2011 and haven’t done so in the same season since 1995.
Mississippi State represents Auburn’s fourth of five straight top-10 opponents to end SEC play.
The weekend will mark Auburn’s third top-10 road trip in the last four weeks.
The team’s .551 opponents’ win percentage in SEC play is good for second in the league, and the final two opponents’ combined 32-16 mark in league play is the best.
The Tigers are 12-11 against ranked team this season, tied for the second most ranked wins in the league, and are 6-6 against ranked teams away from home.
After homering 29 times in the first 34 games, the team has homered 31 times in the last 13 games, good for the second most in the league during the span (Tennessee, 35).
The Tigers are 31-1 when outhitting the opponent this season and 135-17 in the last five years.
The team is also 24-2 when scoring six or more runs this season and 146-29 in the last five years.
Auburn’s pitching staff is the national leader in strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.99), WHIP (1.13) and walks allowed per 9.0 innings (2.68) while ranking second in ERA (3.33).
The Tigers have allowed more than five runs just once in the last 15 games (11-4).
Auburn is looking for its first series win in Starkville since 2017.
SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS
Mississippi State enters the weekend with a 37-12 overall record and is tied with Auburn for fourth in the league with a 14-10 mark in SEC play.
Offensively, the Bulldogs are hitting .310 as a team, good for the second best mark in the league, and leads the league with 113 doubles. The team average dips to .264 in SEC play but they rank top three in hits (224), doubles (45) and home runs (44). Ace Reese leads the team with 19 doubles, 17 home runs and 60 RBI, good for fourth in the SEC.
On the mound, Mississippi State has turned in a 3.85 staff ERA with 549 strikeouts, second in the league, and 171 walks in 423.0 innings pitched. Game one starter Tomas Valincius ranks top five in the league in wins (seven), ERA (2.37), innings pitched (68.1) and strikeouts (92).