6/2/2018 baseball Edit

Auburn will roll out Mize, fully-charged bullpen for day two

Bryan Matthews • AuburnSports

Senior Editor

RALEIGH, N.C. | No. 2 seed Auburn will roll into day two of the Raleigh Regional with its ace on the mound and a fully charged bullpen.

All-American Casey Mize will get the start for the Tigers against No. 4 seed Army, which beat No. 1 seed N.C. State 5-1 Friday night. Auburn opened the Regional with a 13-4 win over No. 3 seed Northeastern.

The Tigers didn’t use any of their top three relievers against the Huskies, which means Cody Greenhill, Calvin Coker and Davis Daniel will all be available as Auburn tries to advance to the finals of the winner’s bracket for a second-straight season.

Mize will try to pitch Auburn into the finals of the winner's bracket against Army. (Wade Rackley/Auburn athletics)

“That was another offensive goal once we got ahead and stayed ahead and kept pushing it up, was to keep Cody out of the game," Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. "That became our mission with our offense. They allowed that to happen and for him to be fresh and ready for game two.”

Greenhill is 4-2 on the season with a team-best 1.76 ERA along with five saves. Coker is 3-2 with a 4.78 ERA and seven saves while Daniel is 3-4 with a 5.21 ERA, but has allowed just two earned runs in his last two appearances totaling 7.2 innings.

Mize is 9-5 on the season with a 3.07 ERA, 140 strikeouts and just 10 walks. Auburn has scored seven runs combined in his last three starts, all losses. It will be Mize’s final start before Monday’s MLB Draft in which he’s projected to be selected by the Detroit Tigers No. 1 overall.

“He’s put himself in position if he gives up three or four runs, it’s like a failure. That’s putting yourself at a really high level,” Thompson said. “But there’s no covering tracks or protecting or anything like that. He is really motivated and I can’t wait for him to get on this mound and get to play.”

A victory over the Black Knights Saturday will put Auburn within one win of advancing to the Super Regionals for the first time since 1999.

Northeastern plays N.C. State in an elimination game Saturday at 1 p.m. CT followed by Auburn and Army at 6 p.m. Both games will be on ESPN3.