AUBURN | Fresh off a 16-run offensive explosion at Samford Tuesday, No. 10 Auburn returns to SEC action Thursday night for the start of a three-game series at Tennessee.

The Tigers, which lost their first series of the season last weekend at Texas A&M, are in the midst of an eight-game road trip.

“This is a pivotal moment for our ball club,” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. “I think we’re aware of that. It’s huge to have success and keep trying to win games in the league to keep up. I think if you look at it, 10 of our 14 teams are within two games of first place. That’s another amazing thing that I can’t remember in my fifteen years. Everybody feels like that they’re right there.”

Auburn, 25-10 overall and 8-4 in the conference, is tied with Arkansas and Mississippi State for first place in the SEC West. Kentucky leads the SEC East with an 8-4 record.

Thompson will go with the same starting rotation as last week with Casey Mize Thursday, Keegan Thompson Saturday and Davis Daniel Sunday. After a week off due to shoulder tendonitis, Thompson had his roughest outing of the season last Saturday allowing four runs in 4.0 innings in a 6-3 loss to the Aggies.

“I thought he was healthy and rusty,” Butch Thompson said. “I thought his fastball was probably the best fastball we’ve seen all year. But what didn’t look like Keegan early in the game was once he started making pitches, it’s like he threw an extra pitch or two to each batter.

“Earlier in the year, on his normal routine, he was just executing pitches on a high level. But I thought his best three batters were the last three that he faced Saturday. We’re going to try to take that as a positive moving in and hopefully we’ll see Keegan get back to executing pitches now that he’s had an outing in College Station.”

Tennessee, 17-13 overall and 3-9 in the SEC, is coming off a series win at Florida. The Volunteers won last Friday’s game 7-6 in 10 innings and Saturday’s 3-2 in 10 innings. The Gators bounced back for a 5-4 win Sunday.

Senior third baseman Jordan Rogers leads UT at the plate batting .375 with four home runs and 20 RBI. Tennessee is 12th in the SEC with a 4.20 ERA but features one of the SEC’s best relievers in senior right-hander Jon Lipinski, who is 3-0 with a 0.60 ERA and two saves.

“Tennessee is coming off their biggest weekend series victory of the year,” Thompson said. “You know they have some veterans … They pitch the ball pretty good. Dave Serrano does a tremendous job. It’ll be a battle for us on the road, just like every time we hit the road.”

Thursday’s game is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT and will be carried on the SEC Network while Friday’s is at 5 p.m. on SECN+ and WatchESPN. Saturday’s finale at 1 p.m. will not be televised.