Auburn baseball sets pitching rotation for Texas series

Auburn baseball will go with a familiar look on the mound this weekend when it hosts Texas for a three-game SEC set beginning Friday at Plainsman Park. Auburn head coach Butch Thompson has announced that the No. 4 Tigers will roll out their usual weekend pitching rotation for the upcoming series with No.

2 Texas. Jake Marciano will get the nod in Friday's opener, followed by Jackson Sanders on Saturday and Alex Petrovic on Sunday. Friday's opener sets up a strong pitching matchup between Auburn's Jake Marciano and Texas' Ruger Riojas.

Marciano won SEC Co-Pitcher of the Week after piecing together a quality outing in his last time out. He tossed a season-high seven complete innings with two hits and zero runs allowed while striking out seven batters in Auburn's 2-0 win over Missouri last Friday. A light outage at Taylor Park in Columbia, Missouri, cut his outing short, but Garrett Brewer closed the deal by striking out three batters over the final two innings while keeping Missouri off the board.

Marciano enters Friday's start with a 3-0 record and a 0. 93 ERA with 42 strikeouts on the season. Riojas, Texas' projected Friday starter, suffered his first loss last Friday against Ole Miss, but has 50 strikeouts on the season, with three games of 50 strikeouts or more.