AUBURN | Auburn’s starting pitchers were 0-2 with a 10.10 ERA in last weekend’s opening SEC series at No. 8 Vanderbilt. The Tigers were out-scored 33-12, dropping all three games.

Clearly, something needed to change with No. 1 Arkansas visiting Plainsman Park this weekend.

“The pitching that we pitched in Nashville will not work in our league. I think we’re aware of that,” said AU coach Butch Thompson.

Auburn will move midweek starter Conner McBride into a weekend role. He’ll face the Razorbacks in Thursday night’s opener.

“He’s had our longest starts and our most productive starts,” said Thompson.

McBride, a junior right-hander, is 3-0 on the season with a 2.41 ERA. He’s struck out 15 and issued four walks in 18.2 innings.

Chase Allsup, who is 1-1 with a 7.15 ERA, will start Friday night’s game while Joseph Gonzalez will go Saturday. Gonzalez is 2-1 with a 6.92 ERA but only gave up one earned run in 3.1 innings at Vandy Sunday.

The Tigers’ bullpen also had its share of issues in Nashville, especially on Sunday. AU led 4-2 after the second inning and 5-3 going into the bottom of the fifth, but relievers Tanner Bauman, Christian Herberholz and Will Cannon combined to give up six earned runs over the final 4.2 innings.

“Can we line up this pitching in such a way that we get more production out of our starters understanding that the middle of the game was a huge challenge for us in game two and game three at Vanderbilt,” said Thompson.

Thursday and Friday night’s games will begin at 6 p.m. CT and Saturday’s game is scheduled for 2 p.m. The SEC Network will carry game one while the final two will be on SECN+/ESPN+.

ANOTHER BIG ISSUE: Auburn’s key right-hander hitters — Bobby Peirce, Deric Fabian, Cooper Weiss and Chris Stanfield — batted just .152 with no extra-base hits against the Commodores. They’ll need to step up this weekend with two of the Razorbacks’ starters being left-handers.

“We’ve only had one big inning offensively in the last four ballgames,” said Thompson. “Offensively, we were slow again (Tuesday) night. Our right-handed hitters, for the last four or five games, have not performed."

MISTAKES BEGET MISTAKES: The defense also had its share of issues at VU with the Tigers committing four errors, which extended innings and led to three unearned runs. Thompson said the all-turf field played a part, but some frustrations at the plate also bled over to mistakes in the field.

“That’s unacceptable and can’t happen in this league,” he said. “It’ll make it harder to be successful. Our league is so good, when you start playing the teams with a ranking beside them of one, two or three, you can’t allow them 30, 31 outs to work with. They’ll make you pay.”

HAWG-ING THE MOUND: Arkansas is the consensus No. 1 team mainly due to a pitching staff that leads the nation with a 2.35 team ERA, 13.6 strikeouts per 9.0 innings and a 0.97 WHIP. The Razorbacks are 17-2 and coming off a home sweep of Missouri in which they out-scored the Tigers 23-1 in three games. "We’re fired up,” said reliever Parker Carlson. “It’s going to be fun this weekend. We’ve got a great team coming in but if we do what we do best, we can beat anybody.”