Auburn-Alabama 'all that needs to be said'

AUBURN | A top-five ranking, hosting an NCAA Regional, an SEC championship, even a potential national seed — a lot is on the line for No. 4 Auburn this weekend as it hosts Alabama for a three-game series at Plainsman Park.

The Tigers enter the series 32-14 overall and 14-7 in the conference, tied with Mississippi State and Kentucky atop the SEC standings with only nine conference games left in the regular season.

“It’s Auburn-Alabama and that’s pretty much all that needs to be said,” senior catcher Blake Logan said. “Being the last time playing Alabama, you would like to go out on a high note. I don’t think since I’ve been here, we haven’t beat them in a series.

“It’s important but you’ve got to treat it just like every other series. All of them are important. It’s the SEC. There’s no off weekends. You got to bring it every game, every series.”

Alabama, 15-29 overall and 2-19 in the conference, is 3-12 in one-run games this season. Auburn hasn’t won a series from the Tide since 2011.

“They’re in every game so you can’t look past anything that they’ve done just because their record says so. They’re a good ball team and they’re just kind of having the luck that we had last year in one-run games,” Logan said.

Auburn is 11-3 in one-run games this season after going 1-11 a year ago.

The Tide has lost 13 straight conference games and is 1-8 in SEC road games. Alabama is ninth in the SEC in hitting (.271), 12th in pitching (4.40) and ninth in fielding (.972).

Cody Henry is hitting .302 with eight home runs and a team-high 31 RBI. Chandler Taylor is batting .260 with a team-high 12 home runs in 28 RBI. Alabama is tied for seventh in the SEC with 38 home runs.

“If I was the head coach at Alabama, which I’m not, I would be taking this as my postseason and trying to get my ball club to play their best baseball of the entire year,” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said.

Auburn is fifth in the SEC in hitting (.283), 11th in pitching (4.02) and seventh in fielding (.975). The Tigers are expected to get several players back from injury this weekend including starting pitcher Casey Mize (forearm) and shortstop Luke Jarvis (back). Right fielder Daniel Robert (sore arm) has made progress this week but will be a gameday decision.

After a strong performance last weekend, Jeremy Johnson is likely to start for a fourth-straight game in left field.

Auburn has won 10-of-11 series this season.

“To be at this point in the season with 10 games remaining in the regular season, to every game being more meaningful and bigger every time you take the field, that’s what it’s supposed to be about. That’s where you want your program to be, for every game to be humungous,” Thompson said.

Game times are set for 6 p.m. CT Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday. The first two game will be on SECN+ and WatchESPN while game three will be on the SEC Network.