No. 6 Auburn will end its four-game road trip with a baseball game against Samford on April 21 at the Hoover Met. The Tigers, holding a 27-12 record, are set to face the Bulldogs (20-18) at 6 p.m. Central Time. The game will be broadcast on the Auburn Sports Network and can be heard locally on Wings 94.3 FM, but there will not be a digital stream available.
The matchup features junior left-handed pitcher Griffin Graves starting for Auburn and redshirt sophomore left-hander Palmer O’Beirne for Samford. Graves is making his second career start after pitching three shutout innings last Tuesday.
Auburn’s recent series win at Florida was its first in Gainesville since 2013, and the team is one of only three Southeastern Conference programs to have won their last three series. The Tigers have been strong in non-conference play this season with a record of 17-4 overall and are undefeated when outhitting their opponents.
Freshman Mason McCraine was named SEC Freshman of the Week for the second time after hitting three home runs and driving in seven runs during the series win over Florida. This marks Auburn’s sixth weekly award through ten weeks of competition.
Auburn leads nationally in several pitching categories, including strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.21), WHIP (1.13), and walks allowed per nine innings (2.61). They also rank second in shutouts (six) and third in earned run average (3.29).
Samford comes into the contest after sweeping UNC Greensboro over the weekend, highlighted by a decisive 14-1 victory Sunday. Offensively, Samford holds a .291 team batting average with sophomore infielder Jake Sounders leading at .404—ranking him nineteenth nationally—and outfielder Luke Boykin topping home runs (11) and RBIs (41). On the mound, Samford has posted a staff ERA of 6.22 across more than three hundred innings pitched.
