AUBURN | Of course Ike Irish loves playing at home in the friendly confines of Plainsman Park.

But there’s just something a little extra special about playing on the road for the Auburn All-American.

“Not that I don’t love playing at home, but I just like to hear a crowd go quiet,” said Irish.

The junior has silenced a lot of away SEC stadiums this spring. In 15 conference road games including nine against top 10 teams, Irish has batted .433 with 22 runs scored, 12 home runs and 21 RBI. All four of his multi-homer games have been away from home.

In 27 league games, Irish ranked second in the SEC in batting average (.398), on-base percentage (.480), slugging percentage (.852), home runs (13) and total bases (92).

“If you had just looked at those numbers and just SEC numbers, he’s our SEC Player of the Year. So deserving where all of the awards went, but Ike has just been a monster this year,” said AU coach Butch Thompson.

"Ike has become a complete player. He’s complete at the plate. He can absolutely catch. He has grown as an outfielder. His leadership capabilities, really what he stands up and says to the team after some adversity, has been a defining moment for us.”

Irish, who became the Tigers’ first two-time, first-team All-SEC selection since Gabe Gross in 2000-01, will lead Auburn into the SEC Tournament this week.

The sixth-seeded Tigers are scheduled to play the winner of Wednesday morning's game between Mississippi State and Texas A&M on Thursday morning at 11 a.m. CT.

The winner will play LSU Friday night.

“We’re experienced, for sure,” said Irish. “We’ve been down. We’ve been up. We’ve been everywhere in-between. It’s inning by inning. It’s pitch by pitch. Each pitch is our lives, basically, from here on out. We lose, we go home. We know that.”