AUBURN | Jack Owen is still at least a week away from returning. Auburn’s ERA over the last five games, which includes four losses, is 6.88, and it has slipped to 12th in the SEC in runs scored and 13th in slugging percentage.

Still the 19th-ranked Tigers are three games ahead of last year’s pace in the conference and only one game behind SEC West leader Arkansas heading into this weekend’s series at No. 12 Texas A&M.

“We need a moment,” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. “Just like a moment gets you going to win 15 in a row, to get this moment and to slow down and get back to some good baseball.”

For Thompson, it starts on the mound where AU has issued 85 walks in the last 13 games since Owen was sidelined with shoulder tendinitis. AU had just 53 walks the first 20 games of the season.

At the plate, AU is hitting just .246 in 12 SEC games and several veteran players such as Will Holland (.200) and Steven Williams (.149) have struggled in conference play. Rankin Woley, who is second on the team with 25 RBI, missed Tuesday’s loss to Jacksonville State with a strained neck.

“Our focus needs to be on us, and get us going again, shoving the ball in the strike zone and having quality at-bats, timely at-bats when it matters most. That's where the focus needs to be,” Thompson said.

The Aggies are led by two of the SEC’s top starters in lefties John Doxakis and Asa Lacy. Offensively, TAMU has very similar numbers to AU ranking 10th in the SEC in runs scored and 14th in slugging percentage.

Tanner Burns will face Doxakis Friday. AU is 8-0 in series openers this season. Thompson elected to go with TBA Saturday and freshman Richard Fitts Sunday. Saturday’s starter will likely come from another freshman in Brooks Fuller or Carson Skipper.

“When you get in this conference you’re going to have to grow up,” said sophomore Cody Greenhill, who has a team-best seven saves. “I think with Skipper, Fuller, Richard Fitts, all of them, they’ve had to step up. I think they’ve learned how to pitch. You could just throw it by guys in high school and I feel like they have matured a lot, learning to throw different pitches in different situations. I think that has helped them.”

Texas A&M is 25-9-1 overall and 7-4-1 in the SEC while Auburn is 23-10 and 7-5. Game times for the series at Blue Bell Park: Friday at 6:30 p.m. CT, Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. All three games will be on SECN+.