AUBURN | No. 5 Auburn has played with a chip on its shoulder all season and Butch Thompson hopes that continues this weekend at No. 8 Mississippi State even with the Tigers reaching their highest national ranking in 14 years.
“I don’t think we’ll play as well if it does change. I think we have to continue,” said Thompson, Auburn’s second-year coach. “Rankings are like noise. We’re not the ones saying where we are ranked, we’re not the promotion of that from within. All I know is three of the last four weekends have been on the road playing SEC series. This is a grind for us right now.
“When Arkansas came in here they were first in the SEC. As we go to Mississippi State they are first in the SEC. Our last six SEC games are against the top team in the Southeastern Conference. I think we phrase it more that way.”
Auburn, 30-13 overall and 12-6 in the conference, is one game behind Mississippi State (29-14, 13-5) for first place overall in the SEC. After getting swept at Arkansas to open conference play, MSU has won five-straight series including a home sweep of Alabama last weekend.
Auburn has won 9-of-10 series this season, taking 2-of-3 from the Razorbacks last weekend.
“It seems like every week we’re playing a first-place team,” shortstop Luke Jarvis said. “It’s definitely that you’re more pumped for that than necessarily the rankings and stuff. You definitely notice it will amp up your intensity a bit.”
The Bulldogs are one of the SEC’s top slugging teams with a .290 batting average, 77 doubles, 11 triples and 41 home runs. Junior first baseman Brent Rooker leads the SEC in nearly every offensive category including batting average (.403), doubles (21), home runs (17), RBI (61) and stolen bases (16). He bats second in the order behind leadoff Jake Mangum, who is hitting .345 with 12 doubles, and ahead of Ryan Gridley, who is hitting .339 with five home runs and 32 RBI. Hunter Stovall, who missed 17 games with a hamstring injury, is hitting .326.
“Brent Rooker, every time he comes up, every at-bat, what’s that situation? And can we, as a pitching staff, pitch him appropriately in that situation,” Thompson said. “I know he’s had success in the SEC in leading his ball club and I know good pitching coaches and good pitchers have been like, ‘Hey, he’s not going to beat us’, and he still has. How we rise to that challenge I think is going to tell the story on the weekend on how we pitch him.”
The MSU pitching staff has been hit by injuries but includes a talented Friday night starter in Konnor Pilkington and two of the SEC’s top relievers in Riley Self and Spencer Price. Pilkington is third in the SEC with 77 strikeouts, Self is 4-0 with a 2.59 ERA and Price leads the SEC with 14 saves. The Bulldogs are sixth in the SEC with a .976 fielding percentage.
“I see a ton of breaking balls, good ones, as good as we've seen, and I can see there are times we've risen to that and had great success and at times that's been a challenge to us. What a great test,” Thompson said. “From a pitching standpoint, I see Konnor Pilkington and I see two sincere bullpen pieces that have had a lot of success.”
The Tigers are fifth in the SEC with a .285 batting average, 10th with a 3.92 ERA and seventh with a .975 fielding percentage, but are actually pitching (2nd with a 3.33 ERA) and fielding (3rd with .979 average) better in conference games. After hitting 10 home runs in its first 34 games, Auburn has hit 11 in its last nine.
Jonah Todd leads Auburn and is second in the SEC with a .384 batting average. He’s hit .500 in the last 10 games with 12 runs scored, four extra-base hits and eight RBI. Josh Anthony is the reining co-SEC Player of the Week after hitting .688 (11-for-16) with three doubles, a home run, six runs scored and nine RBI in four games last week.
This weekend could mark the return of Casey Mize to Auburn’s starting rotation after missing the Arkansas series with tightness in his forearm.
Game times at Dudy Noble Field are 6:30 p.m. CT Friday, 7 p.m. Saturday and noon Sunday. Friday’s game is on SECN+ and WatchESPN while Saturday and Sunday’s are on the SEC Network.
