The Auburn baseball team will play 19 of its first 21 games at Plainsman Park in 2018, third-year coach Butch Thompson announced on Thursday.
Auburn, which finished the 2017 season as the runner-up in the Tallahassee Regional with a 37-26, 16-14 SEC mark, will return seven of its 10 innings leaders on the mound and seven position players who started at least 30 games in 2017. Included in those groups are junior right-handed pitcher Casey Mize, who went 8-2 with a 2.04 ERA and 109 strikeouts, and senior infielder Dylan Ingram, who led Auburn with eight home runs last season.
Opening Day in 2018 will feature Auburn and Longwood at Plainsman Park in the first of a three-game series, beginning Friday, Feb. 16. Other teams to come to the Plains in February will be Georgia State (Feb. 20), Troy (Feb. 21) and Bryant (Feb. 23-25). Auburn will close out the month at South Alabama (Feb. 27).
March brings in a pair of non-conference foes in BYU (Mar. 2-3) and Northeastern (Mar. 9-11) for weekend action as well as mid-week foes Georgia Tech (Mar. 13) and Memphis (Mar. 14).
The SEC portion of the schedule begins on March 16 with Texas A&M, followed by a three-game set at Kentucky (Mar. 23-25) and three at home against Missouri (Mar. 30-Apr. 1).
Auburn will also play three non-conference games away from home during March, facing UAB at Regions Park on March 6, playing at Georgia Tech on March 20 and the annual Capital City Classic against Alabama on March 27 at Montgomery’s Riverwalk Stadium.
Auburn will be at home for just one full weekend in April, playing host to Mississippi State from Apr. 13-15. The rest of the weekend series has Auburn at Arkansas (Apr. 6-8), at Alabama (Apr. 20-22) and at Florida (Apr. 27-29). Three home mid-week games complete the month (vs. Alabama A&M, Apr. 3; vs. UAB, Apr. 17; vs. Samford, Apr. 24).
Vanderbilt (May 4-6) and LSU (May 17-19) bookend the May slate, with both series taking place at Auburn. A trip to Ole Miss (May 11-3) will be surrounded by a home game against South Alabama (May 8) and a road game at Troy (May 15).
The SEC Tournament takes place May 22-27 in Hoover, Ala., with NCAA Regionals being played June 1-4, Super Regionals June 8-11 and the College World Series June 16-27.
