AUBURN | It won’t be official until late Saturday or Sunday morning, but all signs are pointing to Casey Mize returning to the starting rotation for No. 5 Auburn’s key weekend’s series at No. 8 Mississippi State.

Mize, who missed last weekend’s start due to forearm tightness, tested his arm with a 60-pitch bullpen from the mound Wednesday.

“I met with our trainer Sean Striker (Thursday) morning and (Mize) felt great so it’s an unbelievable report,” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. “We’ll treat three times today, we’ll come back and throw tomorrow. I think he’ll throw aggressively to check in one more time.”

Thompson will go with the same starting rotation as last weekend: Keegan Thompson Friday, Davis Daniel Saturday and TBA Sunday. But he’s penciling in Mize for Sunday’s game that’s scheduled to be on T.V. and has rain in the forecast.

“We’ll go this route to make it a coaches’ decision and put the responsibility on the coach instead of the player,” Butch Thompson said. “We potentially may have weather shortening a day so with all these things bouncing through my head and our staff’s head, we’ll go TBA for game three but I would anticipate on a normal weekend, Casey would draw that start and want that start.”

Mize’s potential return couldn’t come at a better time as the Tigers, 30-13 overall and 12-6 in the conference, face a Bulldog team that is one game ahead of them in first place in the SEC.

Mize is 6-1 on the season with a 1.23 ERA, and leads the SEC with 82 strikeouts.

“We all know what he brings to the table. He’s going to give you his all and usually give you a good start,” shortstop Luke Jarvis said. “It’s definitely big for us, especially going into a huge away series."

Game times at Dudy Noble Field are 6:30 p.m. CT Friday, 7 p.m. Saturday and noon Sunday. Friday’s game is on SECN+ and WatchESPN while Saturday and Sunday’s are on the SEC Network.