What Butch Thompson said ahead of Auburn hosting Missouri
AUBURN — After four straight series wins, Auburn hosts Missouri for their final regular season matchup of the season beginning tomorrow night.
This past weekend, Auburn collectively hit .400 with 50 hits, seven doubles, seven homers and a .490 on base percentage. The pitching staff threw for a combined 3.46 ERA with 18 strikeouts, four walks and 25 hits in 26 innings pitched. This team also climbed into a few rankings this week. Auburn is currently ranked No. 19 according to Perfect Game and No. 22 according to Baseball America.
RELATED: Report card: Grading the Tigers’ series sweep at Ole Miss
Missouri heads into this series sitting at 10-17 in SEC play with series sweeps against Tennessee and Georgia and a series win against Ole Miss. Auburn is currently 14-13 in the conference, reaching over .500 this past weekend.
Game times for this weekend are set for 6 p.m. on Thursday and Friday with the finale and senior day’s first pitch at 2 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. All three games can be streamed on SEC Network+.
Head coach Butch Thompson met with the media this afternoon to preview their final series. Here are the highlights of what he said.
— Thompson talked about trying to keep the message simple and get to the “same mindset to go and compete again.” “Prepare the best you can and then get ready to fight for 27, or if it takes more, outs- another series.”
— “We’ve been having good at bats. Can we keep our at bats discipline?” Thompson also talked about “good sounds” when the ball hits the glove for each catch, basically just ensuring that the team sticks to fundamentals.
— “I go back to the Texas A&M series where we walked 25 (batters) in two games and then we walked four in this last series… To me that’s one piece, we’re making the other person beat us.”
— Thompson also said that Kason Howell’s leadership and impact on the team needs to be a big story on this team’s success. “This is the Kason Howell effect and that’s why our team is ready to play… The wins should be towards those players and those leaders and the losses should be towards the coach.”
— Auburn’s pitching order this weekend: “(Chase) Allsup, (Tommy) Vail, TBA, and I just think it depends on how much mileage and who we dump in the (first two) ballgame(s)… I think we need some more flexibility than we have in the past few weekends.”
— “(Christian) Herberholz will be out this week, of course, and next week… We will point towards having him back… I think we’re hopeful. If we can get in a regional then I think we’ll give him the week off and get him set for the regional…” Thompson said reports are good, so this shouldn’t be a long term injury for Herberholz.
— Ike Irish: “He was like ‘our hitter’ in the fall, so he stepped onto campus with respect… Last weekend was fun to watch… If this young man comes back around and starts swinging the bat half of what he was doing to start the season, it’s to our benefit.” Thompson talked about the hitting intelligence that the freshman has and that he thinks Irish is starting to heat back up a bit.
Tanner Bauman and Bobby Peirce also met with the media.
— Peirce discussed heading into last regular series at home. “It’s been a long time coming I guess, I don’t want to put a lot stress on it potentially being the last series here.” Peirce mentioned the possibility of hosting a regional here, but not focusing on that as much as he can and just soaking up his senior weekend.
— Bauman on the dominant weekend in all three games, especially the third- “Obviously, we struggle on Sunday’s… It showed growth in our program for sure.”
— “Getting hot at the right time is big for baseball, especially in this league.” Peirce mentioned Ole Miss’ season last year and how they have learned that anything can happen.
— Peirce talked about not changing the approach headed into this weekend. “You really don’t want change a whole lot from what we’ve been doing… Really our whole lineup has done a good job battling with two strikes… The at bats are starting to come together.”
