Baseball News: 4-8-2026
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Dudley Dent
Apr 8, 2026, 8:10:56 AM (5 days ago) Apr 8
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Auburn Baseball News: 4-8-2026
Auburn's Jackson Sanders 'willing to do anything for this team':
https://auburntigers.com/news/2026/04/7/auburns-jackson-sanders-willing-to-do-anything-for-this-team
No. 10 Auburn downed by No. 21 Jacksonville State:
https://auburntigers.com/news/2026/04/7/no-10-auburn-downed-by-no-21-jacksonville-state
Lifeless Tigers blasted at home by Jacksonville State:
https://247sports.com/college/auburn/article/auburn-was-run-ruled-at-home-by-jacksonville-state-on-tuesday-night-280752337/
Auburn's Jake Marciano on midseason All-America team from D1Baseball:
https://auburnwire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/auburn/baseball/2026/04/07/auburn-baseball-d1baseball-midseason-all-american-jake-marciano-sec/89502405007/
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Auburn's Jackson Sanders 'willing to do anything for this team'
By Jeff Shearer
Thanks to an SEC scheduling adjustment over Easter weekend, No. 10 Auburn faced a decision vs. No. 15 Arkansas: four starting pitchers, only three starts.
It could have been awkward. It ended up being awesome.
Auburn’s normal Saturday starter, sophomore Jackson Sanders embraced the opportunity to pitch in relief.
“I sat down with Coach Thompson earlier in the week and told him, ‘Whatever you need from me, I’ve got you. I just want to win,’” Sanders said. “Whatever we can do to get the team a win.”
Instead of being the odd man out, Sanders became the outstanding man in.
With the series on the line, Sanders entered Saturday’s series finale in the top of the sixth inning with Auburn leading 6-3.
“Get the first hitter out,” Sanders said of mindset upon entering for his first relief appearance of the season. “There’s a different kind of momentum coming out the ‘pen compared to starting. You get brought into the fire pretty quick. Trying to dominate the strike zone today.”
Sanders proceeded to hold the Razorbacks to one hit over 4.0 scoreless innings, earning his first career save while striking out eight with no walks, throwing 70.4 percent of his pitches for strikes.
“That might have been as set as I’ve ever seen Jackson Sanders and he’s the one who didn’t get into the normal routine,” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. “This is his start day, he comes out of the bullpen and handled it masterfully, had his stuff set and it paid dividends. When Jackson’s stuff is set that way, pretty good. He had one of those days.”
As well as Sanders pitched, it was the left-hander’s unselfishness that impressed his head coach even more.
“That was hope for me as a head coach,” Thompson added. “That was hope for me, for Jackson Sanders coming to my office, sitting with me. This kid’s willing to do anything for our program.
“He’s the one that got adjusted the most and he probably threw better than anybody this weekend, and they all threw great. That’s how you’re supposed to attack things.”
Sanders’ team-first willingness to embrace a relief role could pay dividends in his professional career, says Thompson.
“If he gets to continue and play, who knows what role you’ll be in,” Thompson said. “That’s part of the college experience. He’s getting to try and do all these different things and with the right mindset, with the right attitude, he’s always going to find himself in a good place.”
Sanders and game three starter Alex Petrovic teamed up to strike out 12 Razorbacks in Sunday’s 8-3 Auburn victory, allowing only four hits.
“We’re both guys with completely different stuff,” Sanders said. “He’s a changeup guy with a ride fastball. I’m a sinker guy with a cutter and sweeper. Two totally different arm slots, totally different sides of the rubber, a complete opposite. Knowing if we filled it up and executed pitches we were going to be good coming off each other.”
After pitching only 17.0 innings as a freshman in 2025, the 6-3, 210-pounder from Opelika, Alabama, earned a weekend starting role during the preseason and has dazzled in 2026 with a 2-1 record, 3.07 ERA, 59 strikeouts and only nine walks.
“He worked hard last year,” Thompson recalled. “As he’s continued to grow and get more. We didn’t use him as much at the back end of last year and he knows why, he kept growing and he never ran away from anything. He grew, competed and got a starting spot, and now we’re getting to a stage where we need him to do something else for a weekend, and he just absolutely attacks it.
“That’s a great story but a good hope for me having a player like that who’s willing to do anything for this team. Maybe that’s one of those things that’s set us up to be in a good space to win a series.”
Whether he’s starting or relieving this weekend when Kentucky comes to Plainsman Park, Jackson will be ready for action.
*************************
No. 10 Auburn downed by No. 21 Jacksonville State
No. 10 Auburn fell behind early and never recovered in a 15-4 run-rule loss to No. 21 Jacksonville State Tuesday night at Plainsman Park.
The Gamecocks scored in six of their eight innings, totaling 15 runs on 17 hits, both season highs allowed by the Tigers.
“They have to find a way to flush it,” head coach Butch Thompson said. “Just the inconsistencies. We’ve been so good on the mound but only struck those guys out three times. To me, I’ve advertised all year the spirit. You have to have a club grow. (Jacksonville State) came out with a competitive spirit. We’re just seeing some inconsistencies there.”
Jacksonville State (28-6) jumped out to a 3-0 lead with three straight bunts – two for a hit and one for a RBI sacrifice – and a two-run homer in the top of the first.
Auburn starter Christian Chatterton (2-2) responded to hold the Gamecocks off the scoreboard in the top of the second, one of two innings the visitors didn’t score with the other coming against Ryan Hetzler in the fourth.
A two-run homer after an error extended the lead to 7-0 in the fifth, and Jacksonville State made it a 10-run game on a bases-clearing double in the sixth.
Auburn got on the scoreboard with four runs on five hits in the bottom of the sixth. Bub Terrell, Eric Guevara, Ethin Bingman and Logan Gregorio turned in four straight singles to start the scoring. Back-to-back sacrifice flies from Brandon and Mason McCraine added two runs, and a RBI double from Bristol Carter finished off the four-run frame.
The Gamecocks got all but one run back with three in the top of the seventh, two coming on a two-out error.
The first three Jacksonville State batters of the seventh reached and two came in to score to make it a 15-4 game.
Jacksonville State starting pitcher Ryan Geraghty (1-1) recorded all six of his outs with strikeouts and earned the win on the bullpen day.
Auburn’s offense totaled nine hits, including two apiece from Carter, Bingaman and Gregorio.
Auburn’s Southeastern Conference slate continues with a series against Kentucky (24-8, 6-6 SEC) Friday through Sunday at Plainsman Park.
***********************
Lifeless Tigers blasted at home by Jacksonville State
By Jason Caldwell
In a battle of Top 25 teams on Tuesday night at Plainsman Park, the Jacksonville State Gamecocks came out swinging and the Auburn Tigers didn't have a response until it was far too late as they were blown out 15-4 in eight innings. It's the first time the Tigers have been run-ruled at home since losing 19-5 to Tennessee on April 7, 2024. With the loss Auburn falls to 22-10 overall while Jacksonville State improves to 28-6 on the year.
It was a night for forget in every area for the Tigers as Jacksonville State dominated in every facet of the game. They pounded Auburn pitching for 15 runs on 17 hits. Defensively, the Tigers made four errors and it wasn't any better at the plate as they struck out 13 times and didn't score until they were down 10 runs.
Following the game, Thompson and the players had a meeting in left field that lasted nearly 15 minutes. There were no other coaches involved. Following Thompson leaving the meeting, the players remained in the outfield for several more minutes before finally heading to the locker room. When asked about his message to the team, the veteran coach had one straightforward answer.
"None of your business."
Later, Thompson did talk about what that meeting was all about. He wanted to hear some feedback from his team on what they saw tonight. What did he see?
"We'll be ready to go Friday," he said about his team. "Hopefully we'll get that back, but this is about breeding consistency with young people. It's not about the scoreboard. This is about consistency and being able to do your craft on a daily basis. A lot of balls fell in for them. We only struck them out three times. We got to three strikes over and over again. They just didn't get big. For two weeks in a row we have seen well-operating offenses with identity get the bat to the ball, tone down swings, stay on balance. Those are some of the things that built up for us tonight. As a coach you're responsible for more things than you can control. I'm very well aware of that.
"I needed them to tell me what I just saw and what are we going to do. I wasn't willing to wait 48 hours and keep this wound open because it was not a good feel for us. That was different for us tonight. We're going to win some games, we're going to lose some games, but that was a different feel for us tonight. I needed them to tell me what I just saw because ultimately I'm responsible for all of it. There are some things that I'm trusting players and coaches to be able to control and be able to do our jobs and with the right spirit. I thought we fell extremely short of that tonight."
It started early for JSU on Tuesday night as the first batter reached on a bunt single and advanced to second on a throwing error by Chatterton. That proved to be a sign of things to come with the second batter reaching on a bunt single to put runners on the corners. A third straight bunt pushed across the first run and bring DH Brady Thomas to the plate. Getting a 1-0 pitch over the heart of the plate, he blasted it over the bullpen in right field for a two-run home run and a three run lead.
Two innings later the Gamecocks would add to the lead against reliever Marcel Kulik. His first pitch was doubled into left field and when the second batter put down another bunt for a base hit, JSU had runners on the corners with nobody out. A sacrifice fly and a single pushed two more runs across to make it 5-0.
On the other side JSU starter Ryan Geraghty was busy dominating the Auburn hitters. After striking out the side in the first inning, he worked around a walk and a hit batter in the second by striking out three more. Facing reliever Josh Sibley in the bottom of the third, Auburn got a leadoff walk from Mason McCraine and a single from Carter to start the inning. It wouldn't matter as a Chase Fralick ground ball moved the runners up, but Chris Rembert and Bub Terrell struck out on six total pitches to end the inning. It was one of three strikeouts on the night for Rembert.
In the top of the fifth the Gamecocks added to the lead. Following an one-out error on Eric Guevara, JSU tacked on two more runs on a two-out home run. That made it 7-0 and this one was all over but the shouting.
One inning later the Gamecocks officially ended this one, spoiling the return of Graves. Coming out of the game with the bases loaded and two outs following a single and a pair of walks, the lefty turned it over to Garrett Brewer but on his second pitch Cole Blauser doubled to clear the bases and make it 10-0.
Auburn finally showed some life in the bottom of the sixth as the Tigers got four straight singles from Terrell, Guevara, Ethin Bingaman and Logan Gregorio to finally get on the board. They would get two more runs on back-to-back sacrifice fly balls from Brandon McCraine and Mason McCraine to cut the lead to seven. When Bristol Carter smashed a double off the left field wall it was a four-run inning for the Tigers. A walk to Fralick followed to bring Rembert up with a chance to put Auburn right back in the game, but his ground ball to third ended the rally.
That would be all the excitement for Auburn on this night as Jacksonville State added a run before Rembert's rough night would continue. With two outs and runners on second and third, reliever LJ Cormier got a ground ball to second that Rembert misplayed. The fourth error of the night for Auburn allowed two more runs to score to push the lead back to nine for JSU. They would add two more runs in the top of the eighth to finish
Auburn returns to action this weekend when the Tigers take on the Kentucky Wildcats in a three-game series at Plainsman Park.
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Auburn's Jake Marciano on midseason All-America team from D1Baseball
By Taylor Jones
Auburn Wire
Auburn baseball's top arm has earned a spot on D1Baseball's Midseason All-American team.
Auburn lefthander Jake Marciano has earned national recognition for his hot start to the 2026 season. In eight starts, Marciano has recorded 64 strikeouts and has issued just seven walks over 48 2/3 innings. The Virginia Tech transfer is 3-1 and has a 1.29 ERA.
Marciano is the lone SEC player to make D1Baseball's midseason all-america team, but he is one of six players from the conference to earn a nod from the publication. Texas pitcher Ruger Riojas earns a spot on D1Baseball's first team pitching staff, while Georgia catcher Daniel Jackson, Georgia third baseman Tre Phelps, Texas A&M outfielder Caden Sorrell, and Florida designated hitter Brendan Lawson are all a part of the lineup on D1Baseball's first team.
Marciano allowed a run on four hits in last Friday's start against Arkansas at Plainsman Park while striking out eight and walking one. Auburn is slated to start Christian Chatterton in place of the usual midweek starter Andreas Alvarez, so it is expected that Alvarez will once again get a weekend start. How will that affect Marciano's schedule? The No. 12 Auburn Tigers welcome Kentucky to Plainsman Park for a three-game series beginning Friday, where Marciano will aim to earn another win over an SEC opponent.
Auburn's Jackson Sanders 'willing to do anything for this team':
https://auburntigers.com/news/2026/04/7/auburns-jackson-sanders-willing-to-do-anything-for-this-team
No. 10 Auburn downed by No. 21 Jacksonville State:
https://auburntigers.com/news/2026/04/7/no-10-auburn-downed-by-no-21-jacksonville-state
Lifeless Tigers blasted at home by Jacksonville State:
https://247sports.com/college/auburn/article/auburn-was-run-ruled-at-home-by-jacksonville-state-on-tuesday-night-280752337/
Auburn's Jake Marciano on midseason All-America team from D1Baseball:
https://auburnwire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/auburn/baseball/2026/04/07/auburn-baseball-d1baseball-midseason-all-american-jake-marciano-sec/89502405007/
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Auburn's Jackson Sanders 'willing to do anything for this team'
By Jeff Shearer
Thanks to an SEC scheduling adjustment over Easter weekend, No. 10 Auburn faced a decision vs. No. 15 Arkansas: four starting pitchers, only three starts.
It could have been awkward. It ended up being awesome.
Auburn’s normal Saturday starter, sophomore Jackson Sanders embraced the opportunity to pitch in relief.
“I sat down with Coach Thompson earlier in the week and told him, ‘Whatever you need from me, I’ve got you. I just want to win,’” Sanders said. “Whatever we can do to get the team a win.”
Instead of being the odd man out, Sanders became the outstanding man in.
With the series on the line, Sanders entered Saturday’s series finale in the top of the sixth inning with Auburn leading 6-3.
“Get the first hitter out,” Sanders said of mindset upon entering for his first relief appearance of the season. “There’s a different kind of momentum coming out the ‘pen compared to starting. You get brought into the fire pretty quick. Trying to dominate the strike zone today.”
Sanders proceeded to hold the Razorbacks to one hit over 4.0 scoreless innings, earning his first career save while striking out eight with no walks, throwing 70.4 percent of his pitches for strikes.
“That might have been as set as I’ve ever seen Jackson Sanders and he’s the one who didn’t get into the normal routine,” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. “This is his start day, he comes out of the bullpen and handled it masterfully, had his stuff set and it paid dividends. When Jackson’s stuff is set that way, pretty good. He had one of those days.”
As well as Sanders pitched, it was the left-hander’s unselfishness that impressed his head coach even more.
“That was hope for me as a head coach,” Thompson added. “That was hope for me, for Jackson Sanders coming to my office, sitting with me. This kid’s willing to do anything for our program.
“He’s the one that got adjusted the most and he probably threw better than anybody this weekend, and they all threw great. That’s how you’re supposed to attack things.”
Sanders’ team-first willingness to embrace a relief role could pay dividends in his professional career, says Thompson.
“If he gets to continue and play, who knows what role you’ll be in,” Thompson said. “That’s part of the college experience. He’s getting to try and do all these different things and with the right mindset, with the right attitude, he’s always going to find himself in a good place.”
Sanders and game three starter Alex Petrovic teamed up to strike out 12 Razorbacks in Sunday’s 8-3 Auburn victory, allowing only four hits.
“We’re both guys with completely different stuff,” Sanders said. “He’s a changeup guy with a ride fastball. I’m a sinker guy with a cutter and sweeper. Two totally different arm slots, totally different sides of the rubber, a complete opposite. Knowing if we filled it up and executed pitches we were going to be good coming off each other.”
After pitching only 17.0 innings as a freshman in 2025, the 6-3, 210-pounder from Opelika, Alabama, earned a weekend starting role during the preseason and has dazzled in 2026 with a 2-1 record, 3.07 ERA, 59 strikeouts and only nine walks.
“He worked hard last year,” Thompson recalled. “As he’s continued to grow and get more. We didn’t use him as much at the back end of last year and he knows why, he kept growing and he never ran away from anything. He grew, competed and got a starting spot, and now we’re getting to a stage where we need him to do something else for a weekend, and he just absolutely attacks it.
“That’s a great story but a good hope for me having a player like that who’s willing to do anything for this team. Maybe that’s one of those things that’s set us up to be in a good space to win a series.”
Whether he’s starting or relieving this weekend when Kentucky comes to Plainsman Park, Jackson will be ready for action.
*************************
No. 10 Auburn downed by No. 21 Jacksonville State
No. 10 Auburn fell behind early and never recovered in a 15-4 run-rule loss to No. 21 Jacksonville State Tuesday night at Plainsman Park.
The Gamecocks scored in six of their eight innings, totaling 15 runs on 17 hits, both season highs allowed by the Tigers.
“They have to find a way to flush it,” head coach Butch Thompson said. “Just the inconsistencies. We’ve been so good on the mound but only struck those guys out three times. To me, I’ve advertised all year the spirit. You have to have a club grow. (Jacksonville State) came out with a competitive spirit. We’re just seeing some inconsistencies there.”
Jacksonville State (28-6) jumped out to a 3-0 lead with three straight bunts – two for a hit and one for a RBI sacrifice – and a two-run homer in the top of the first.
Auburn starter Christian Chatterton (2-2) responded to hold the Gamecocks off the scoreboard in the top of the second, one of two innings the visitors didn’t score with the other coming against Ryan Hetzler in the fourth.
A two-run homer after an error extended the lead to 7-0 in the fifth, and Jacksonville State made it a 10-run game on a bases-clearing double in the sixth.
Auburn got on the scoreboard with four runs on five hits in the bottom of the sixth. Bub Terrell, Eric Guevara, Ethin Bingman and Logan Gregorio turned in four straight singles to start the scoring. Back-to-back sacrifice flies from Brandon and Mason McCraine added two runs, and a RBI double from Bristol Carter finished off the four-run frame.
The Gamecocks got all but one run back with three in the top of the seventh, two coming on a two-out error.
The first three Jacksonville State batters of the seventh reached and two came in to score to make it a 15-4 game.
Jacksonville State starting pitcher Ryan Geraghty (1-1) recorded all six of his outs with strikeouts and earned the win on the bullpen day.
Auburn’s offense totaled nine hits, including two apiece from Carter, Bingaman and Gregorio.
Auburn’s Southeastern Conference slate continues with a series against Kentucky (24-8, 6-6 SEC) Friday through Sunday at Plainsman Park.
***********************
Lifeless Tigers blasted at home by Jacksonville State
By Jason Caldwell
In a battle of Top 25 teams on Tuesday night at Plainsman Park, the Jacksonville State Gamecocks came out swinging and the Auburn Tigers didn't have a response until it was far too late as they were blown out 15-4 in eight innings. It's the first time the Tigers have been run-ruled at home since losing 19-5 to Tennessee on April 7, 2024. With the loss Auburn falls to 22-10 overall while Jacksonville State improves to 28-6 on the year.
It was a night for forget in every area for the Tigers as Jacksonville State dominated in every facet of the game. They pounded Auburn pitching for 15 runs on 17 hits. Defensively, the Tigers made four errors and it wasn't any better at the plate as they struck out 13 times and didn't score until they were down 10 runs.
Following the game, Thompson and the players had a meeting in left field that lasted nearly 15 minutes. There were no other coaches involved. Following Thompson leaving the meeting, the players remained in the outfield for several more minutes before finally heading to the locker room. When asked about his message to the team, the veteran coach had one straightforward answer.
"None of your business."
Later, Thompson did talk about what that meeting was all about. He wanted to hear some feedback from his team on what they saw tonight. What did he see?
"We'll be ready to go Friday," he said about his team. "Hopefully we'll get that back, but this is about breeding consistency with young people. It's not about the scoreboard. This is about consistency and being able to do your craft on a daily basis. A lot of balls fell in for them. We only struck them out three times. We got to three strikes over and over again. They just didn't get big. For two weeks in a row we have seen well-operating offenses with identity get the bat to the ball, tone down swings, stay on balance. Those are some of the things that built up for us tonight. As a coach you're responsible for more things than you can control. I'm very well aware of that.
"I needed them to tell me what I just saw and what are we going to do. I wasn't willing to wait 48 hours and keep this wound open because it was not a good feel for us. That was different for us tonight. We're going to win some games, we're going to lose some games, but that was a different feel for us tonight. I needed them to tell me what I just saw because ultimately I'm responsible for all of it. There are some things that I'm trusting players and coaches to be able to control and be able to do our jobs and with the right spirit. I thought we fell extremely short of that tonight."
It started early for JSU on Tuesday night as the first batter reached on a bunt single and advanced to second on a throwing error by Chatterton. That proved to be a sign of things to come with the second batter reaching on a bunt single to put runners on the corners. A third straight bunt pushed across the first run and bring DH Brady Thomas to the plate. Getting a 1-0 pitch over the heart of the plate, he blasted it over the bullpen in right field for a two-run home run and a three run lead.
Two innings later the Gamecocks would add to the lead against reliever Marcel Kulik. His first pitch was doubled into left field and when the second batter put down another bunt for a base hit, JSU had runners on the corners with nobody out. A sacrifice fly and a single pushed two more runs across to make it 5-0.
On the other side JSU starter Ryan Geraghty was busy dominating the Auburn hitters. After striking out the side in the first inning, he worked around a walk and a hit batter in the second by striking out three more. Facing reliever Josh Sibley in the bottom of the third, Auburn got a leadoff walk from Mason McCraine and a single from Carter to start the inning. It wouldn't matter as a Chase Fralick ground ball moved the runners up, but Chris Rembert and Bub Terrell struck out on six total pitches to end the inning. It was one of three strikeouts on the night for Rembert.
In the top of the fifth the Gamecocks added to the lead. Following an one-out error on Eric Guevara, JSU tacked on two more runs on a two-out home run. That made it 7-0 and this one was all over but the shouting.
One inning later the Gamecocks officially ended this one, spoiling the return of Graves. Coming out of the game with the bases loaded and two outs following a single and a pair of walks, the lefty turned it over to Garrett Brewer but on his second pitch Cole Blauser doubled to clear the bases and make it 10-0.
Auburn finally showed some life in the bottom of the sixth as the Tigers got four straight singles from Terrell, Guevara, Ethin Bingaman and Logan Gregorio to finally get on the board. They would get two more runs on back-to-back sacrifice fly balls from Brandon McCraine and Mason McCraine to cut the lead to seven. When Bristol Carter smashed a double off the left field wall it was a four-run inning for the Tigers. A walk to Fralick followed to bring Rembert up with a chance to put Auburn right back in the game, but his ground ball to third ended the rally.
That would be all the excitement for Auburn on this night as Jacksonville State added a run before Rembert's rough night would continue. With two outs and runners on second and third, reliever LJ Cormier got a ground ball to second that Rembert misplayed. The fourth error of the night for Auburn allowed two more runs to score to push the lead back to nine for JSU. They would add two more runs in the top of the eighth to finish
Auburn returns to action this weekend when the Tigers take on the Kentucky Wildcats in a three-game series at Plainsman Park.
**********************
Auburn's Jake Marciano on midseason All-America team from D1Baseball
By Taylor Jones
Auburn Wire
Auburn baseball's top arm has earned a spot on D1Baseball's Midseason All-American team.
Auburn lefthander Jake Marciano has earned national recognition for his hot start to the 2026 season. In eight starts, Marciano has recorded 64 strikeouts and has issued just seven walks over 48 2/3 innings. The Virginia Tech transfer is 3-1 and has a 1.29 ERA.
Marciano is the lone SEC player to make D1Baseball's midseason all-america team, but he is one of six players from the conference to earn a nod from the publication. Texas pitcher Ruger Riojas earns a spot on D1Baseball's first team pitching staff, while Georgia catcher Daniel Jackson, Georgia third baseman Tre Phelps, Texas A&M outfielder Caden Sorrell, and Florida designated hitter Brendan Lawson are all a part of the lineup on D1Baseball's first team.
Marciano allowed a run on four hits in last Friday's start against Arkansas at Plainsman Park while striking out eight and walking one. Auburn is slated to start Christian Chatterton in place of the usual midweek starter Andreas Alvarez, so it is expected that Alvarez will once again get a weekend start. How will that affect Marciano's schedule? The No. 12 Auburn Tigers welcome Kentucky to Plainsman Park for a three-game series beginning Friday, where Marciano will aim to earn another win over an SEC opponent.
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