OMAHA | Auburn is hitting .314 in the NCAA Tournament and has already beaten some pretty good pitchers including the top starters from Coastal Carolina, Georgia Tech and North Carolina in the last two weeks.

But an even tougher pitcher awaits Sunday in the opening game of the College World Series in Mississippi State All-American Ethan Small. The junior left-hander is 10-2 on the season with a 1.76 ERA and leads the country with 168 strikeouts.

“He’s going to throw a lot of fastballs,” Auburn hitting coach Gabe Gross said. “He’s primarily a fastball, changeup pitcher. It’s not overpowering. It’s going to be around 90, in the low 90’s, but he’s got the ability to spin a baseball at a very high rate. Instead of the baseball coming in at a normal arc, it just stays up. He’s more of a fly ball pitcher. He induces a lot of weak contact, fly ball pop ups.

“It puts a lot of pressure on the hitter to be able to take the one that’s above the letters but you’ve got to be ready to hit the one that’s at the letters. As with all good pitchers, he’s not a one-trick pony. He may only have two pitches, but he uses that combination in a lot of different ways. He can pitch in and out, he can pitch up down too.”

The Tigers faced Small earlier this season. They beat MSU 6-5 but didn’t beat Small. He allowed two runs on three hits in 6.0 innings with seven strikeouts and three walks. Steven Williams and Rankin Woley hit back-to-back home runs off Small in the sixth to cut MSU’s lead to 5-2 and chase him from the game after 99 pitches.

Auburn scored two off Jared Liebelt in the seventh and two more off Colby White in the eighth to complete the comeback.

“I thought our approach was decent,” said Gross of the March 22 matchup against Small. “I know we ended up winning the game but we didn’t do it all off Ethan. We scored just a couple of runs off him. He’s a good pitcher. If you tell me we’ve got to score eight or nine runs to win this game, that’s going to be a tall order. He’s going to make you earn absolutely everything.

“At the same time, we’ll have a good approach for him, we have a plan for him and if we can go out and execute 1 through 9, I expect us to put some runs on the board and give ourselves a chance to win. He’s a great pitcher but our guys are pretty gritty, we’ll get after you.”

If Auburn can get Small out of the game Sunday, they’ll still face a talented bullpen led by Liebelt and Cole Gordon. Liebelt is 2-0 with a 2.79 ERA and five saves in a team-high 32 appearances. Gordon is 4-0 with a 3.76 ERA and team-best 11 saves.

“They’ve run a very, very successful deal here through their own postseason of a Small, a Liebelt getting that sinker coming right behind it, then also (Cole) Gordon finish with a vertical stacker effect, elevated fastball, dropping breaking balls,” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. “It’s three different guys but that’s been the recipe lately.

“Yes, we’ve got to talk about Small but we’ve also got to talk about a couple of those pieces that they’ve used here. That’s been a recipe for them just like we can talk about Watson, talk about Fitts coming in late. We’ve had our own recipe but that’s been theirs.”

First pitch at TD Ameritrade Park is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CT on ESPN2.