AUBURN | Butch Thompson has made it clear to his team. There will be no looking ahead to an NCAA Regional next week or fretting over a potential top eight national seed.

No. 7 Auburn is playing in the SEC Tournament at the Hoover Met with one goal in mind.

“We should be trying to win an SEC Championship this week. This is the opportunity this week. All of the other stuff is in the future,” said Thompson.

The Tigers haven’t won the SEC Tournament since 1998, which is also the last time they made the finals. They haven’t made it to the semifinals since 2003.

This year’s tournament will have a different format. All 16 teams in the conference are participating and the entire tournament will be single elimination.

Auburn, the No. 6 seed, will play No. 14 seed Texas A&M Thursday morning. The winner will play No. 3 seed LSU in the quarterfinals Friday.

“I don’t think you can live for tomorrow,” said Thompson. “You have to find a way within those nine innings to win a ballgame or you’re gone. I think that forces your hand to do absolutely everything you can in the moment. I think that will breed some exciting ballgames.”

First pitch is scheduled for 11 a.m. CT on SEC Network.

MATCHUP ON THE MOUND: The Aggies struggled to an 11-19 conference record but their starting pitching has been a strength. Ryan Prager threw 5.1 shutout innings in Wednesday’s opening 9-0 win over Mississippi State, and junior left-hander Justin Lamkin, the reigning SEC Pitcher of the Week, will face AU. Lamkin threw a complete-game shutout against Georgia last week with 15 strikeouts. Auburn will counter with sophomore right-hander Cam Tilly, who is starting for the fifth consecutive time after working out of the bullpen in his first 26 AU appearances. Tilly was able to go 4.0 innings in his first start and has stretched that to 5.0 in his last two.

“I know I can go out there and get outs,” said Tilly. “But how long can I do that? I think I’ve showed throughout this progression I’ve continued to go longer and longer. Hopefully, we can go longer in this outing as well.”

NO CHANGES: Thompson plans to stick with the same rotation in the tournament with plans to start Samuel Dutton against LSU and Christian Chatterton in the semifinals if AU continues to advance. Dutton was 6-2 with a 2.37 ERA in his first 12 starts, but has struggled the last two weeks going 0-1 with a 15.43 ERA. Dutton threw 86.2 innings combined in three years at LSU while he’s thrown 75.1 innings for the Tigers this spring. “He had his bullpen (Tuesday), and everything's checking out and feeling good,” said Thompson. “So I just think every time we get him out there that hopefully he'll rebound and get his second wind. It's the right time of year to get your second wind for the postseason.”

GIVE HIM HIS DUE: Chris Rembert has had a remarkable freshman season batting a team-best .355 with 13 doubles, 10 home runs and 40 RBI. He’s been even better in SEC games batting .376 with eight doubles, six home runs and 22 RBI. Texas’ closer Dylan Volantis took SEC Freshman of the Year honors, however, gong 4-0 with a 1.66 ERA, 12 saves and 64 strikeouts in 43.1 innings. “I remember I had a pretty good freshman year and I hit .275 in the league,” said junior All-American Ike Irish. “To see Chris hit .375 in the league, I’m not sure how you don’t win co-Freshman of the Year.”

FOUR FOR THREE: Eric Snow has a team-best nine-game hitting streak in which he’s batting .387 with two doubles, one home run and six RBI. He started at shortstop in the season finale at Ole Miss, but has mainly played second or third base this season. Eric Guevara has started 15 consecutive games at third, Deric Fabian 50 games at shortstop and Rembert 36 games at second, seven in right field and seven at DH. “Snow adds a lot to us and can really swing the bat at times,” said Thompson. “I think we can be successful with any of those three out of four being in there. There have been some games where we’ve had all four of them in there with Rembert bouncing out to right field. All four are healthy right now and all four are in a rotation to get three of the four or all four on the field in a given game.”