Auburn opens the month of March on the road with a pair of road games beginning with Auburn on Tuesday night at Plainsman Park at 6 pm. The Hornets will stay on the road and head to Birmingham to face Samford on Wednesday night at 6 pm.
The Auburn game can be heard on the Auburn Sports Network, while the Samford game will be carried on ESPN+. The meeting with Auburn will be the first of two for Alabama State, while the meeting with Samford will be the second meeting of the year between the two after the Bulldogs won 6-5 in Montgomery.
Follow The Hornets
Fans can follow this weekend’s games via the below outlets
Listen (Tuesday): Auburn Sports Network | Listen Live
Watch (Wednesday): ESPN+ | Watch Live
Twitter: @BamaStateBB
Live Stats (Tuesday): AuburnTigers.com
Live Stats (Wednesday): SamfordSports.com
Probable Starting Pitching Matchups
TUESDAY: ALST – Adiel Melendez (So., LHP) vs. AUBURN – Konner Copeland (So., LHP)
SATURDAY: ALST – TBD vs. SAMFORD – TBD
Leading Off
- Alabama State and Auburn kick off a week of five games for the Hornets, and the meeting will be the first of two between the two schools at Plainsman Park this season. They will meet again on April 19. The two teams have met nine times since 2012, with Auburn holding an 8-1 lead in the series. The two have not met since April 19, 2016, and the lone win in the series for Auburn came in 2014 – a 9-3 victory on February 19.
- The Hornets and Samford met earlier this season in Montgomery, with Samford pulling out a 6-5 victory with four runs combined in the eighth and ninth innings. The two teams have met 15 times since 2-14 with Samford holding an 11-4 advantage. The win by the Bulldogs in Montgomery ended a two-game winning streak in the series by the Hornets who swept the season series in 2021 with 11 runs in both games.
About the Hornets
- Alabama State comes into the midweek having won its first weekend series of the year over UT-Martin, winning 13-0 in game two and 3-2 in the final game of the series on Saturday (doubleheader).
- Corey King (Lithonia, Ga.) leads the team in hitting after going 7-for-14 this past week, getting his average to .414 with an OPS of 1.093. He has 12 hits on the season including a pair of doubles, a triple, and a home run. He has scored seven runs and driven in eight. Chris Lewis (Alabaster, Ala.) is also hitting over .400 this season, hitting .407 with five runs scores and six runs batted in.
- Angel Jimenez (Santo Domingo, DR) and Trenton Jamison (Atlanta, Ga.) are both hitting over .300 with each recording a home run.
- On the mound, Luis Rodriguez (Canovanas, PR) and Xavier Williams (Smyrna, Ga.) both have yet to yield a run, while Tuesday starter Adiel Melendez (Miami Fla.) has recorded a 1.29 earned run average after a 7.0 innings against Samford last week. Breon Pooler (Huntsville, Ala.) enters the week at 2-0 with a 1.64 earned run average.
About the Tigers
- Auburn will be playing the first of six straight games at home beginning with Alabama State on Tuesday and will have played 10 games in 12 days at the conclusion of the week.
- Auburn’s pitching staff has allowed 14 runs in the first seven games, the fewest since allowing 10 runs in the first seven games of the 1996 season.
- The Tigers are 72-33 (.758) against non-conference opponents in the regular season since the start of the 2018 season, including 39-12 (.765) on the weekend.
- Sonny DiChiara leads the Tigers at the plate this season, hitting .545 with 12 total hits – including six doubles – and has scored 11 runs and driving in seven.
About the Bulldogs
- Samford enters the week after a 7-4 extra-inning upset of No. 11 Florida State on Sunday in Tallahassee (Fla.). They started year off 4-0 before back-to-back losses to the Seminoles.
- The Bulldogs have three players hitting over .300 including Garrett Howe at a team-leading .370 with 10 hits and seven runs batted in. He is joined by Maurice Hampton, Jr. (.368) and Towns King (.333) at over .300. King leads the team in home runs with four including the two-run shot to win the game in Montgomery in February of this year.
- On the mound, Alex Goff and Logan Jones have yet to give up a run in short outings, while Jalon Long has recorded a 0.96 earned run average with a victory. Two other pitchers have a sub-2.00 ERA including Brody Westbrooks and Carson Hobbs.