AUBURN | Preparations for the 2025 college baseball season amp up Friday with the beginning of full-squad practices.

Auburn will mirror the start of the season with intrasquad games Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday.

“We're excited to get going,” said AU coach Butch Thompson. “The snow's cleared. Plainsman Park's open for our players. About 21 days till our season starts.”

The Tigers will field a 40-man roster this spring that includes 21 newcomers. The group includes nine transfers and 12 freshmen, many of which will be vying for starting positions or spots in the pitching rotation.

It’s a competition that could stretch into the first couple of weeks of the season, especially with the position players.

“I think our roster is too deep positionally to say, ‘This is what we’re going to do,’” said Thompson. “I think that first weekend especially, you could see 14 different guys getting an at-bat and you could see 10-12 if not all the way up to 14 guys actually drawing a start that first weekend.

“This fall it stayed jumbled, but I would say it stayed jumbled above the line and stayed jumbled with guys playing good baseball.”

Next year, college baseball teams will have five weeks to prepare for the season. Auburn’s pitchers have been throwing over the previous two weeks to try and match that and be in the best shape possibly going into the start of the season.

“They're ahead of schedule,” said Thompson. “This is probably the most, what we call, dangerous time from a health standpoint because these guys are trying to get ready so quick. So we did try to mirror that a little bit from a voluntary standpoint and the feedback's been positive.”

The intrasquad games this weekend are scheduled for 2:30 p.m. CT Friday, 1:15 p.m. Saturday and 2:15 p.m. Sunday. The season begins Feb. 14-16 against Holy Cross at Plainsman Park.