Auburn ‘reaching for the highest star’ by playing Mississippi State in Biloxi

Just a quick four months after being bounced in the super regionals of the NCAA Tournament in 2026, the Auburn Tigers are heading back on the diamond as they get their early start on making a trek back to the College World Series. 

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Thursday serves as a fall exhibition game for the Tigers, as Butch Thompson’s squad travels to Biloxi, Mississippi to take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs in a preseason SEC duel.

Auburn ended last season at 42-22 overall while going 17-13 in conference play. It then won its regional at Plainsman Park before being eliminated in two games by Ole Miss in the super regional.

According to Thompson, allowing not only his team, but the first-year players to get tested early against a conference foe is something he believes will be a huge benefit, getting them ready for the level of competition that is ahead.

"Whenever you hit a field, you're matched athletically like what happens in the SEC, the last seven national champions have come out of this league, you can win the whole thing and not make the postseason the next year, you're just matched athletically,” Thompson said. “I think that's good for us to go get a sense and feel again for really the first-year guys. These guys have walked through it before, but you can tell somebody everything you want to tell them, but for them to experience this is a whole another level of learning. And I think we'll do that moving forward.”

Under the new scheduling format in the SEC, each program will not play five teams in the regular season, making for 10 weekend conference series to go through.

Seeing that the Bulldogs were not one of the programs that the Tigers would play this year, he wanted his players to be challenged in the best way possible. This exhibition game was something that lit up in his mind.

“This weekend was about who are the best teams in our footprint that we can play that's not on our schedule,” Thompson said. “That’s really reaching for the highest star, and we’re going to have that where we’re missing five SEC teams every year for the foreseeable future. And I would like to hook up with one or two of those every fall because I think that gives us one of the most realistic looks to what these guys are, the level that they’re tyring to play at.”

In Thursday’s action, Thompson said he would not throw any of his arms very long, having nine pitchers on the docket to take the mound in the 12-inning spectacle. He said each of them would throw one or two innings at the most. 

Auburn is returning a number of pitchers to the mound this year, including the likes of Andreas Alvarez, Jake Marciano and LJ Cormier.

For the whole team though, Thompson said getting an opportunity like this game is one he hopes his team takes a lot of lessons from.

“I think it’s greatly beneficial,” Thompson said. “I cherish the 12 innings (Thursday) because I think we can say all the words we want to. I think learning is at another higher best level possible by playing a team like Mississippi State.”

First pitch from Biloxi is set for 6 p.m. CST, and the game will be streamed on WarEagle+.

Auburn Undercover is an independent Auburn sports media company covering Auburn athletics, recruiting and insider news.