Baseball Tigers need to be 'more fundamentally sound'
Auburn is looking for its first SEC series win against Tennessee at Plainsman Park this weekend.
AUBURN | It’s been the little things that have kept Auburn from winning an SEC series the first four weekends of conference play. The Tigers are 3-9 in the SEC with six of those losses coming by a combined 10 runs.
What may be holding Auburn back more than anything is its defense. The Tigers are last in the SEC with a .960 fielding percentage and have given up 29 unearned runs.
“We’ve just got to keep fighting and give ourselves a chance to win a series,” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. “Last weekend we really wanted to move as a program. Our players and coaches really wanted to find a way to win the series. I started with our staff on Monday, we need to be great models for these guys and not critics. That’s important for us to do as a coaching staff and for our players to hear us say that.
“That’s the first thing we announced and then we had to look each other in the eye and tell each other we’ve got to be more fundamentally sound if we want to be competitive in our league. We felt like we’ve matched up pretty good every SEC weekend and we don’t have a series victory so we know we have to keep growing, keep developing and get more fundamentally sound if we want anything to change.”
Auburn hosts Tennessee this weekend, which has an identical 3-9 conference record. Like Auburn, the Vols are a good hitting team but struggle with pitching and defense.
Auburn will shake up its starting rotation a bit this weekend. Junior left-hander Ben Braymer (3-2, 2.43 ERA) will get the start Thursday with junior right-hander Cole Lipscomb (1-3, 6.51) working out of the bullpen.
“(Tennessee) will present a lot of left-handers (in their lineup),” Thompson said. “We kind of shortened Cole last week because of the Thursday, Friday, Saturday … and we’d like for Cole to get a little bit of a break and maybe help us in our bullpen.”
The rest of Auburn’s rotation will be senior right-hander Justin Camp (2-2, 3.91) Friday and junior left-hander Andrew Mitchell (4-2, 4.39) Saturday.
Tennessee will counter with sophomore left-hander Aaron Soto (3-1, 4.78) Thursday, sophomore left-hander Zach Warren (4-3, 2.92) Friday and senior left-hander Andy Cox (2-3, 6.54) Saturday.
Auburn’s Daniel Robert will miss the next few weeks with a broken left thumb but Joshua Palacios is expected back for this series after missing the last three games with an injured right wrist.
Thursday and Friday night’s games will start at 6 p.m. CT and be carried on the SEC Network. Saturday’s game is at 1 p.m. and will be available on SECN+ and WatchESPN.