Auburn Baseball Cracks D1Baseball’s Top 25

The Auburn Tigers have entered D1 Baseball’s Top 25, according to. They sit at No. 22 spot. The Tigers are 11-1 and won 10 straight. Their only loss came against the Holy Cross Crusaders in their second game of the season over Opening Weekend. With the Tigers now in the Top 25, the SEC now has 12 teams ranked. Only Mississippi State, Kentucky, Missouri and South Carolina are on the outside looking in.

The Tigers are almost halfway to last year’s win total (27) in the first 12 games of the year. Head coach Butch Thompson has significantly revamped his team in the offseason, bringing in 21 new players to the roster. Among them are 12 freshmen. However, Thompson hasn’t treated them as such. Christian Chatteron already has earned the Sunday starting spot, while Andreas Alvarez is one of the starting pitchers during the week.

The other weekend spots have been taken by new Tigers’ pitchers as well. Transfer pitchers Samuel Dutton and Cade Fisher both have taken over the Friday and Saturday slots this season. Both pitchers came from other SEC programs (LSU and Florida, respectively). The most impressive unit is the bullpen. Multiple games have been won by them This includes Saturday’s clash with No. 8 Oregon State Beavers, where the Tigers won 8-7.

As a team, through 12 games, now has a 3.37 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 126 strikeouts and pitchers have earned three saves across that time frame. They have allowed 43 runs (eight being home runs) on 80 hits and 40 walks facing 359 at-bats through the first 12 games. Last season, the team’s ERA was 5.90.

The Tigers also have improved immensely at the plate. Freshmen Chris Rembert and Bub Terrell have launched multiple home runs and brought life to a team that struggled to hit long balls last year. The Tigers have also impressed on the basepaths as many Tigers have stolen multiple bases in a single game.  Cade Belyeu, Deric Fabian and Bristol Carter all have been the beneficiaries of this.

While there is still plenty of time for the stats to change, the Tigers are definitely on the right track, thus the Top-25 ranking. With an 11-1 record and plenty more games where the Tigers should be favorites, they could be moving in the ranking.

The Tigers next play UAB on Wednesday, March 5 at 5:30 p.m. CST at Regions Field.