Auburn Baseball Faces Alabama in Important Series for SEC Tournament

Auburn baseball (20-24, 7-14) took 2-of-3 from Kentucky last weekend, giving themselves a chance to make a push for the SEC Tournament as they face rival Alabama (25-20, 10-11) this weekend in Tuscaloosa.

The Tigers currently are tied with three other teams for 10^th place in the overall conference standings, and you just have to be in the top 12 to make the tournament. A sweep of Alabama this weekend would essentially even them up with the Crimson Tide record-wise, but just winning the series should give Auburn baseball some breathing room as far as making the tournament.

Alabama lost 2-of-3 at home to Mississippi State last weekend, and they’ve lost six of their last eight games. The Crimson Tide is last in the SEC in hitting with an average of .245, while putting up 4.2 runs per game. They’re sixth in pitching with a 3.38 team ERA and 348 strikeouts in 396.1 innings.

Chance Vincent leads Alabama on offense with a .311 average and 27 RBIs. Chandler Taylor is the team’s home run leader with six. And Chandler Avant leads the team in runs scored with 25, while hitting a solid .278, so clearly you have to watch out for the Chance and Chandlers on this team.

Geoffrey Bramblett has been the team’s Friday night starter all year with a 2.78 ERA in 68 innings with 57 strikeouts. Jake Walters comes behind him in the rotation with a 1.99 ERA in 63.1 innings with a team-high 62 strikeouts.

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Thomas Burrows has been really good out of the bullpen for Alabama with a 0.52 ERA in 17.1 innings with 28 strikeouts and 10 saves. Other than Burrows, their bullpen can be had.

The Tigers rank second in the SEC in hitting with a .311 average, while scoring 6.9 runs per games. They’ve scored over 100 more runs than Alabama in one less game. However, Auburn’s pitching ranks 12^th in the SEC at 4.40, which is a run worse than Alabama.

Anfernee Grier has slipped a little, but still holds a solid average of .399 with 50 runs, 9 home runs and 37 RBIs as he looks to improve his stock in the upcoming MLB Draft. Jordan Ebert is hitting .353 with 35 runs scored, and Niko Buentello is batting .329 with 34 runs, 9 home runs and 43 RBIs.

With Joshua Palacios and his .408 average out of the lineup, Melvin Gray has filled in nicely after a slow start to the season improving his average to .255 with 21 runs scored in just 31 games.

Auburn has the offensive firepower, they just have to put it all together in the same game, and do so on a consistent basis.

Cole Lipscomb’s up-and-down season continued as he tossed a complete game against Kentucky last week, improving his ERA to 5.19. Hopefully Cole has finally figured it out and will finish the season strong. Justin Camp has also had an up-and-down season, but he has a solid ERA of 3.63.

With Auburn not having a mid-week game this week, Butch Thompson will use a number of pitchers in this series, including Casey Mize (2.96); Ben Braymer (4.06); Gabe Klobosits (5.04); Andrew Mitchell (5.32); and Gordon Cardenas (2.35).

When Auburn pounded Alabama in the Capital City Classic 10-1, Andrew Mitchell allowed just 1 run over 6 innings pitched, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him get a start in this series.

This is the best chance Auburn has left on the SEC schedule to win a series, so it’s imperative that they win at least two games against the Tide. If they can’t pick up a couple of wins this weekend, they’ll have to try and win a series against either Mississippi State or Vanderbilt.

The Tigers have the offense to score on Alabama, and if they can take down one of their best two starters in either Bramblett or Walters, then I think they can outscore Bama in the third game to win the series.

War Eagle!

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