Auburn baseball ranked 17 in Baseball America poll

Auburn baseball was picked to finish last in the SEC West. After a few weekends of conference play, the Auburn Tigers find themselves ranked 17th in college baseball after a series-winning victory against Vanderbilt.

There's no question that this baseball team is trending in the right direction. Baseball America believes the same thing.

Here was the write-up on the Tigers as they earned that number 17 spot.

Auburn put together perhaps its most impressive weekend of the season on the way to winning a series against Vanderbilt. The pitching staff held the Commodores to one run on two hits Friday, led by 4.1 innings from lefthander Hayden Mullins, who worked around six walks in his outing. Home runs, a solo shot for second baseman Cole Foster in the second and a three-run blast for DH Brooks Carlson in the third, gave the Tigers most of their offensive production. Very little went right for Auburn in the second game of the series, but rather than let that loss carry over to Sunday, it came back and clinched the series with an 8-2 win in a game where most everything went well. On the mound, righthander Joseph Gonzalez threw a complete game, giving up eight hits and two runs (one earned) with no walks and eight strikeouts. And offensively, the Tigers scored seven runs in the first three innings to create an insurmountable lead in the blink of an eye. First baseman Sonny DiChiara had three hits, two home runs and a double, and drove in five. A series at Mississippi State is next for Auburn.

Auburn is one of five SEC teams in the Baseball America top 25 this week. Tennesee remains at one, Arkansas is at seven, Georgia is at 12, Auburn is 17, LSU is 24th.

The Tigers were ranked 25th in the poll a week ago. The Auburn Tigers take on Mississippi State in a three-game series this weekend starting Thursday