With an overall record of 33-15 and 13-11 in Southeastern Conference play, Auburn baseball is putting together its best regular season in recent years. Just 12 months ago, the Tigers were in the midst of one of their worst.

Auburn finished the 2024 baseball season with a record of 27-26 overall and 8-22 in SEC play, not even qualifying for the SEC tournament, much less the NCAA tournament. The team’s eight SEC wins were tied for the fewest in program history since 1983, a season in which Auburn went 4-18 in conference play.

With two SEC series left in the 2025 season, Auburn has already surpassed its win total in 2024 and has a chance to double it if the Tigers split the final six conference games.

When asked about the turnaround, Auburn athletic director John Cohen — a former college baseball coach in the SEC — pointed out one thing in particular as the biggest difference from 2024 to 2025.

“I think what you have is swing and miss on the pitching staff,” Cohen told reporters at the Lutzie 43 Golf Invitational. “You have strike throwers with swing and miss capabilities. I always say in college baseball, that’s the great eraser.”

Auburn’s pitching staff currently ranks ninth in the SEC in strikeouts, but it’s only 13 away from already matching last year’s total of 478. Outside of just the strikeouts, Auburn’s staff has gone from a 5.94 earned run average in 2024 to a 4.53 ERA in 2025.

The biggest addition to the staff has undoubtedly been former LSU pitcher Sam Dutton. He transferred to Auburn last summer after spending three seasons in Baton Rouge and winning a national championship in 2023.

He’s the Friday night starter at Auburn in 2025, leading the team with 81 strikeouts and ranking second in the SEC in ERA (2.37) among qualifying pitchers.

“Now you have some arms, starting with Dutton every weekend, that give so much confidence to this team,” Cohen said.

With two SEC series left, Auburn is now in good position to earn a top eight seed in the NCAA tournament. That would give the Tigers home field advantage in both the regional and super regional rounds.

The first of those two series is against South Carolina, with first pitch of Game 1 scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday. The game will be televised on ESPN2.

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m