Auburn baseball opens season on Friday vs. Indiana

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Play Ball: Auburn baseball opens season on Friday vs. Indiana

Jason Caldwell

3–4 minutes

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AUBURN, Alabama—For Coach Butch Thompson and the Auburn baseball Tigers the work for the 2023 season will continue even after the first pitch is thrown against the Indiana Hoosiers on Friday, but it’s opening weekend at Plainsman Park and that means the first measuring stick for a program that is hoping to get back to the College World Series for the third time in the last four full seasons.

Having to replace key pieces on the mound and at the plate, Auburn has a strong mixture of veterans and new faces who will take the field for the 4 p.m. CST first pitch on Friday. While the team has been together since September, Thompson said you never really know what’s going to happen until you step out there and face another team.

“We talk about how you want the practice to be for the coaches and the game to be for the players,” Thompson said. “I think we’re to that point. I have seen us ranked anywhere from 17th to 300 in preseason polls and I think that’s fair. You lose five pitchers in the first 12 rounds (MLB Draft), even if you bring in a Top 10 class, even if you have five freshmen in the Top 100. That’s all guesswork. I’m excited about the season and our players to play somebody else. We’ll know more next Monday than we’ve known for months on who we are.”

While Auburn features some proven players in the lineup such as catcher Nate LaRue, shortstop Cole Foster, center fielder Kason Howell and left fielder Bobby Peirce, the Tigers also have several new faces led by Kent State transfer Justin Kirby, Kansas transfer Cooper McMurray, junior college transfer Caden Green and true freshman Ike Irish.

A player who is expected to be a fixture in the Auburn lineup for the foreseeable future, Irish is someone that has already impressed his coaches and teammates as he prepares for his first season with the Tigers.

“First and foremost, he’s got great physical tools,” Auburn assistant coach Gabe Gross said of Irish. “He’s a big body, strong kid. I think something not talked about enough in the world of analytics and all this stuff is, his competitive gene is through the roof. That joker competes for every pitch, every second.

“In the recruiting process you get to know these kids when they’re pretty young. I asked him what he was looking for in a college and he said ‘coach, I just want to win. I hate to lose.’ I thought that was one of the best answers I had ever gotten. He brings that to the ballpark every single day.”

Projected opening day lineup:

1.LF Bobby Peirce

2. CF Kason Howell

3. DH Ike Irish

4. RF Justin Kirby

5. SS Cole Foster

6. C Nate LaRue

7. 1b Cooper McMurray

8. 3b Bryson Ware

9. 2b Caden Green

Weekend pitching rotations:

Friday – So. RHP Chase Allsup (0-0, 0.00) vs. Sr LHP Ben Seiler (0-0, 0.00) 

Saturday – Jr. RHP Joseph Gonzalez (0-0, 0.00) vs. R-Sr. LHP Ty Bothwell (0-0, 0.00) 

Sunday – Fr. LHP Drew Nelson (0-0, 0.00) vs. TBA

Game times:

Friday, 4 p.m., SEC Network+

Saturday, 2 p.m., SEC Network+

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Sunday, 1 p.m., SEC Network+