Baseball Welcomes #7 Ole Miss To Plainsman Park

[AUSportTalk 4]

The stretch run for the Auburn baseball team begins

this weekend when No. 7 Ole Miss visits Plainsman Park for a three-game

Southeastern Conference series. Auburn (27-19, 8-13 SEC) enters the

weekend in ninth-place in the SEC standings, a game behind South

Carolina for the eighth and final spot in the conference tournament held

later this month at Regions Park in Hoover.

The nation’s top home run hitting team with 97, Auburn will face one

of the conference’s best pitching staff as Ole Miss, which at 33-13,

13-8 SEC and just a game behind West leader LSU, has a 4.04 staff ERA,

second-best in the conference.

“This is a huge weekend for us. There are nine conference games left

to play and there is a lot of moving and seeding yet to be had,”

Auburn Head Coach John Pawlowski said. “Ole Miss is playing well. They

went to Florida and won two-out-of-three there. They won a series

against Georgia at home where they drew 27,000 people, which is

absolutely incredible. When you look at them and what they have on

paper, and what they bring to the table on the mound, it will be a

challenge for us and we will have to be ready to play this weekend.”

Auburn will use the same starting rotation that it sent out to the

mound last weekend in Baton Rouge, starting R-Fr. RHP Jon Luke Jacons

(3-3, 5.75 ERA) on Friday, So. LHP Grant Dayton (2-4, 5.06) on Saturday

and Fr. RHP Dexter Price (3-1, 5.06) on Sunday.

Ole Miss will counter with So. LHP Drew Pomeranz (4-2, 3.49), Jr. RHP

Phillip Irwin (5-3, 4.01) and Sr. RHP Scott Bittle (5-2, 2.17) in that

order.

Game times for the series are 6pm CT on both Friday and Saturday and

1pm on Sunday. The final two games of the series will be televised live

on CSS.

The first 500 fans through the gates on Friday will receive an Auburn

six-pack cooler courtesy of Winn-Dixie and Nabisco while the first 500

into Saturday’s game will receive an Auburn mini-bat courtesy of

Golden Flake and a pair of AU croakies courtesy of University Village.

The first 500 fans to enter on Sunday will receive set No. 4 of the

2009 Team Trading Card set courtesy of Longhorn Steakhouse and fans can

purchase four tickets, four hot dogs and four drinks for just 50

dollars. Kids 12-and-under will also be allowed to run the bases after

the game.

[auburn4ever 1,266]

How many SR's do we have on this years team?

[ausbest14 0]

Only one every-day starter in Ben Jones (RF)...Ryan Jenkins (catcher) will get an extra year since he broke his hand before the season-opener and hasn't played at all.  Paul  Burnside, a midweek pitcher and weekend reliever, is a SR. as is not-very-often-used pitcher, Kris West.  The only juniors who could possibly be drafted high are Joseph Sanders (3B) and closer Austin Hubbard.