COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Taking on its third straight top-10 opponent to start Southeastern Conference play, No. 21 Auburn (16-8, 1-5 SEC) will battle with No. 4 Texas A&M (22-3, 3-3 SEC) for three games Thursday through Saturday in College Station, Texas.
Up Next:
at No. 4 Texas A&M
Thursday-Saturday, Mar. 28-30, 2024
TV: SEC Network+/SEC Network
Radio: Auburn Sports Network
First pitches from Blue Bell Park are scheduled for Thursday and Friday at 6 p.m. CT and Saturday at 7 p.m.
"Texas A&M, it's going to be one of the best environments in college baseball," head coach Butch Thompson said. "They're absolutely one of the best teams out there. It's just going to be this way every week. Let's just keep getting into it and keep fighting. We know what it looks like to play top teams in the country, so we're going to have to do it again in their environment."
The games will be broadcast on the Auburn Sports Network and can be heard locally on Wings 94.3 FM. Thursday and Friday will be streamed digitally on SEC Network+ and Saturday's series finale will be broadcast nationally on SEC Network.
PROBABLE STARTERS
Thursday – Jr. RHP Conner McBride (3-1, 2.38) vs. R-So. LHP Ryan Prager (5-0, 1.67)
Friday – Jr. RHP Chase Allsup (1-1, 6.59) vs. Jr. RHP Tanner Jones (1-1, 4.70)
Saturday – R-Jr. RHP Joseph Gonzalez (2-1, 7.56) vs. So. LHP Justin Lamkin (2-0, 1.48)
QUICK HITTERS
This weekend marks Auburn's third straight series against a top-10 team to start SEC play.
The team's last four SEC games have been decided by a combined seven runs.
The Tigers are one of two teams in the country, joined by USC Upstate, that have hit at least 40 homers and stolen at least 50 bases this season - 44 home runs, 51 stolen bases.
Cooper McMurray (36) and Ike Irish (34) rank fourth and fifth in the league, respectively, in RBI.
Irish is riding a career-best, 11-game hitting streak and has driven in a run in 20 of 24 games.
McMurray is 3-for-4 with two homers, eight RBI and has reached eight times the last two games.
Cooper Weiss leads the country in stolen bases (21). He is the first Auburn player with 20 or more stolen bases since Jay Gonzalez (30) and Creede Simpson (25) in 2012.
The pitching staff has turned in a 3.14 ERA with 53 strikeouts to 15 walks in 43.0 innings in five games since the beginning of last week.
Auburn is 15-17 in the all-time series against Texas A&M, including 6-9 in College Station.
The Tigers won the series in the last trip to Blue Bell Park from Mar. 25-27, 2022.
SCOUTING THE AGGIES
Texas A&M enters the weekend with a 22-3 overall record and 3-3 mark through two weekends of SEC play.
The Aggies dropped two of three games at Florida SEC opening weekend before winning two of three against Mississippi State at home last week.
Offensively, Texas A&M is hitting .295 as a team and are led by outfielders Jace LaViolette and Braden Montgomery. Both have homered 12 times, while Montgomery is second in the country in RBI (40).
On the mound, the Aggies rank second in the country to Arkansas with a 2.85 staff ERA and have turned in a national-leading six shutouts already this season.