Auburn baseball travels to #11 LSU for a three-game series

Auburn baseball hits the road in a battle with the LSU Tigers. Here's everything you need to know.

Photo credit: Jacob Taylor/Auburn Athletics

Auburn head coach Butch Thompson is excited to take his team on the road to face a talented LSU squad in the hostile environment of Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 

“I’m always excited," he said. "Twenty years of this and being drug through the mud and everywhere else in between, I’m still excited.”

But he’s also aware that the 2022 iteration of the Auburn Tigers still has lessons to learn. “It’s the consistency with our ball club. You’re either trying to get momentum or keep it. And I think these young people still have lessons to learn. This club has to learn that. Every time we go grab a little bit of momentum and it’s time to start rolling and you get a sellout crowd on a midweek - that we haven’t had here, ever - you’re supposed to try to take advantage. This team can’t take the next step until it starts understanding what it means to go and get momentum or try to keep it, and have a sense of urgency about trying to keep it.”

Auburn’s tasked with getting that momentum against an LSU team that is 2nd in the SEC (behind unanimous #1 Tennessee) in runs, slugging, on-base percentage, RBIs, and 3rd in home runs, behind Tennessee and Florida. The test is more on the pitchers than the defense - As Thompson says, “Most extra-base hits are thrown”. Allowing extra-base hits has been a weakness of Auburn’s pitching staff, with its 48 doubles allowed coming in at next to last in the SEC, ahead of only Mississippi State. And make no mistake, LSU is not interested in playing small ball. It has only attempted 16 steals on the season, good for 11th in the SEC out of 12 teams, while they are third in doubles and home runs.

With such a minimal focus on the opposing running game, there is a chance Ryan Dyal may get more starts at catcher if Auburn either is not concerned with the threat of base stealers or does not want to make the defensive trade-off of having a catcher in Alex Box Stadium’s expansive left field. Nate LaRue, however, performed well over the weekend against Texas A&M and stands to get an expanded look behind the plate.

Offensively, LSU is led by the three-headed monster of Dylan Crews, Cade Doughty, and Jacob Berry. The trio has combined for 20 home runs and 84 RBIs, and represents the biggest challenge for Auburn’s pitching staff to navigate this season. The three sophomores, along with OF/1B Brayden Jobert, anchor an LSU lineup that has put up double figures ten times on the season, including three of the last four games.

Projected pitching matchups:

Game 1: Jr. LHP Hayden Mullins vs TBA

Game 2: Jr. RHP Trace Bright vs TBA

Game 3: Soph RHP Joseph Gonzalez vs TBA

Projected lineup

3B Blake Rambusch

CF Kason Howell

1B Sonny DiChiara

DH Brooks Carlson

SS Brody Moore

RF Mike Bello

2B Cole Foster

LF Ryan Dyal

C Nate LaRue

Quick stats:

Leadoff hitter 3B Blake Rambusch has a 15-game hitting streak, the longest Auburn hitting streak since Jonah Todd’s 16-game hitting streak in 2017. He currently leads the SEC in hits, with 41.

Sonny DiChiara leads the country with a .608 on-base percentage. He also ranks third in slugging (.924) and fourth in average (.455), both of which lead the SEC.

Stats that exist but do not matter

Auburn leads the SEC in wild pitches, with 34, while LSU leads the SEC at getting hit by pitches, with 66. Expect to see some plunking.

Schedule (all on SEC Network+)

Game 1: Thursday, 6:00 PM

Game 2: Friday, 6:30 PM

Game 3: Saturday, 2:00 PM