Fri 7:00 p.m. Sat 6:30 p.m. Sun 1:00 p.m. -- TELEVISED ON CST Auburn has won the last 3 series vs LSU, and LSU has only captured eight of the last 14 series between the clubs dating back to 1999 2012 (@ Auburn) Fri -- L, 3-4 Sat -- L, 2-3 (10 innings) Sun -- W, 4-3 2011 (in the Box) Fri -- L, 7-8 Sat -- L, 1-3 Sun -- W, 3-2 2010 (@ Auburn) Fri -- W, 14-10 Sat -- L, 7-11 Sun -- L, 5-6
Overall Win % this season 0.909 -- Ole Miss 0.905 -- LSU 0.833 -- Miss St 0.714 -- Auburn 0.682 -- Texas A&M 0.667 -- Arkansas 0.591 -- Alabama 0.864 -- Vanderbilt 0.857 -- South Carolina 0.800 -- Kentucky 0.550 -- Tennessee 0.455 -- Florida 0.412 -- Missouri 0.381 -- Georgia
noteable former Auburn players: --Frank Thomas, 5× MLB All-Star (1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997) --Tim Hudson, 3× MLB All-Star (2000, 2004, 2010) --Bo Jackson, 1x MLB All-Star (1989)
Mainieiri: “(Auburn coach) John Pawlowski has done a tremendous job...they have very talented players, excellent pitching and defense, and they know how to win games at the end [Auburn is 4-2 in one-run games this season]. We know we have a huge challenge in front of us, but we’re excited about the opportunity to play an SEC series in our home environment.” “No one around here is taking Auburn lightly...we need to play well this weekend.”
LSU and Auburn both played a mutual opponent back-to-back weekends in Brown: LSU beat Brown W 4-3 (Fri) and W 7-1 (Sat) Auburn beat Brown W 9-4 (Fri), W 6-0 (Sat), W 6-3 (Sun)
Auburn's returning pitchers had a 15-8 record last year, and held opponent batters to a .254 batting avg last season This season, Auburn pitchers are holding opponent batters to a .243 batting avg, after stocking up on JUCO arms over the offseason. Auburn coach John Pawlowski: "One of our goals (in recruiting last year), was to build an even deeper pitching staff. We feel good about our options there." The LSU student newspaper writes that Auburn "dominates on the mound...Starting southpaws Daniel Koger and Michael O’Neal will anchor the Auburn rotation, coupled with lefty junior closer Conner Kendrick – a frightening thought for LSU, which has struggled with left-handed pitching at points during the season." Their Friday starter is sophomore Daniel Koger, a 6-foot, 5-inch lefty who held opponent batters to a .208 batting avg last season, and a .247 batting avg this season. against Vandy last week, he held them to a .227 batting avg over 6 innings, only walking 2. Last year against LSU, he held LSU to a .259 batting avg over 7 innings and had zero walks. Of Koger's team-leading 15 starts in 2012 as a freshman, he allowed more than three runs just twice. Coming out of high school, he was a 2011 First Team Louisville Slugger All-American, a Perfect Game All-American, and Mr. Baseball for the state of Alabama Their Saturday starter is junior JUCO transfer Michael O'Neal, a 224-pound lefty who is holding opponent batters to a .196 batting average. last week vs Vandy, he held them to a .158 batting avg over 6 innings, with only 1 walk #3 on their team in inning pitched this season behind the above two is junior JUCO transfer Conner Kendrick, another lefty, who is holding opponent batters to a .196 batting avg this season
other Auburn pitchers to watch: Junior LHP Will Kendall, who is 4-0 at Auburn and held opponent batters to a .226 batting avg last season over 38.1 inning pitched Junior RHP Dillon Ortman, who held opponent batters to a .231 batting avg last season and .261 for his career at Auburn (73.1 innings pitched) Junior RHP Jay Wade, who held opponent batters to a .256 batting avg last season over 32.0 innings pitched Soph RHP Trey Cochran-Gill, who has a 5-2 record at Auburn, holding opponent batters to a .254 batting avg for his career (47.2 innings pitched), including .216 this season Freshman RHP Matt Schultz, a Top250 recruit holding opponent batters to a .167 batting avg this season Freshman RHP Trey Wingenter, a 2012 Draft pick holding opponent batters to a .174 batting avg this season
The good news is Auburn hasn't been doing well at the plate this season, only batting for . 269 as a team But, they have four starters hitting over .313....and two of their starters Tella (.286 this season) and Glevenyak ( .227 this season) hit .360 and .319 last season on Wed, Southern Miss, which has struggled on the mound in midweek games, blanked Auburn for the first seven innings behind starter Jake Drehoff. The Tigers came through at the plate in the eighth, tying the game on Cullen Wacker's three-run double. Auburn coach John Pawlowski: "I think it's going to happen where we're going to break out (at the plate)... We just haven't done that. We've hit some balls hard and teams have made some plays. Sometimes that's just baseball but sooner or later it's got to turn for us and we've got to get a couple breaks and score some runs." “We didn’t capitalize on some of the opportunities that we had, and we had some opportunities...You’ve got to be able to capitalize on that. We didn’t." "I am very excited about this year's team." "Our team has high goals and aspirations and our guys have worked extremely hard," Pawlowski said. Since his arrival prior to the 2009 season, Pawlowski's clubs have oozed with offensive firepower. In two of the past three seasons he has guided the top hitting team in the SEC, which included a .304 team batting average last year
The hot topic this week has been the shaky play of Nola (and LSU radio just brought it up with Mainieri). He was up and down this season and got rocked early last week at Miss St Nola on Auburn: "It’s another SEC school that’s going to be really good,” Nola said. “I’ve got to stay more focused in the first inning,” Nola said. “The first inning is really big for me. My mentality is that I have to go all out in the first inning. That’s the tone-setter for the game.” “I left the ball up last weekend (v Miss State),” Nola said before practice Thursday. “That’s why I got hit around a good bit.” Ty Ross: "he (Nola) didn’t have his best stuff (v Miss State), but he still battled. Mississippi State came out swinging.” “I thought Aaron settled in and pitched OK,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said. “Aaron just got off to a bad start. "couple of pitches missed their spots, and when you do that in this league, good hitters are going to make you pay for it,” pitching coach Alan Dunn said. “But I don’t want Aaron to do anything different than he’s been doing. It’s just a matter of commanding and hitting his spots a little more consistently than he did last week.” “I think Aaron is going to be fine,” Mainieri said. "I think he’ll pitch a really good game."
