Projected Rotation for Auburn Tigers in NCAA Baseball Regional Tournament

Head coach Butch Thompson has several Auburn Tigers who are ace-worthy over the course of the 2026 season.

The Auburn Tigers have several pitchers, like Jake Marciano, who could be aces on almost every other team in the country. | Jake Crandall/ Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Pitching is a prized possession for Auburn baseball, and head coach Butch Thompson will rely on it this weekend. 

The Tigers are set to host their second regional in a row, hosting UCF, NC State and Milwaukee over the course of the next several days. Auburn will look to come out of it victorious to then host a super regional next week. 

For that, Thompson needs a rotation that will guide the Tigers through it. Fortunately, his team is ranked third in the country in collective ERA at 3.45 while playing in one of the toughest schedules in the country. 

This is the expected rotation for Auburn for the Auburn Regional at Plainsman Park. 

Friday: Jake Marciano, LHP, 2.64 ERA

Auburn lefty Jake Marciano led the team in ERA and innings pitched during a stellar 2026 campaign. | Jake Crandall/ Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Tigers’ three-headed monster on the mound starts with Marciano, a player whose halved his ERA from his freshman to his sophomore year. Going up against Milwaukee to begin the NCAA Tournament, he will look to shove once again. 

Marciano was confirmed to be Auburn’s starter on Thursday afternoon, although he is the only confirmed pitcher thus far. 

Regional opener ready. 💪 #WarEagle | @Jake_Marciano4 pic.twitter.com/SsvRGcoc7K

— Auburn Baseball (@AuburnBaseball) May 28, 2026

The Bayville, New Jersey, native leads the team in innings pitched this season with 81.2 in 2026. He eats up innings, only being pulled before the fourth inning in one contest while starting in 15 games for the Tigers this season. That’s a positive for Thompson, who faces a Milwaukee team that has a collective batting average of .275. 

Depending on how this game goes early on for Auburn will determine how far Marciano will go in the Friday game. However, he should be successful, looking limit Panther bats in a fashion that he’s done pretty frequently over 2026.

Saturday: Andreas Alvarez, RHP, 3.30 ERA

Auburn pitcher Andreas Alvarez has become one of the cemented weekend starters since the season began. | Jake Crandall/ Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Going deeper into one of the murderer's rows of college baseball, Alvarez won’t let anything easy happen either. He leads the Tigers in strikeouts with 102. He joins Marciano as the other pitcher with 100 strikeouts or more. That hasn’t happened since the 1999 season. 

This matchup would be against NC State or UCF, win or lose on Friday, meaning Alvarez will need his best stuff, and that’s what’s been typical of him. In his last outing against Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament, he struck out nine and only allowed only one hit. 

Alvarez has five shutouts as a starter this season, and they all came with him throwing for five innings or more. Despite having some difficult outings against SEC teams like Georgia and Florida, he will be on top of his game in what hopes to be for the second win in a row this weekend. 

Sunday: Alex Petrovic, RHP, 3.21 ERA

Alex Petrovic allowed no runs in his last outing for the Auburn Tigers against Arkansas in the SEC Tournament. | Jake Crandall/ Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

It doesn’t get any easier for opponents on Sunday, with Petrovic typically being the guy to finish out weekend series for the Tigers this season. Hopefully, the Sunday that he pitches in this weekend will be the deciding win to send Auburn to the super regionals. 

The redshirt sophomore has had the outings previously to do so as well. 

Out of all the starters, Petrovic is the best in batting average allowed by opponents at only .207. He’s also second out of the starters in WHIP (1.00) and fourth in strikeouts with 81. Even if he doesn’t strike you out like Marciano and Alvarez do, you don’t get on base often with the righty on the mound. 

Called “one of the best game three guys” by his coach, Thompson has full confidence in Petrovic, and the trio of teams coming to the Plains this weekend will have a difficult trio of Auburn starters who will kick off the weekend. 

Sunday/Monday (if necessary): Marciano OR Jackson Sanders, LHP, 2.66 ERA 

Another lefty, Jackson Sanders, can be the team's starter, although seeing recent reps from the Auburn bullpen. | Jake Crandall/ Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

If this fourth game is needed, Thompson has another pitcher that has a sub-3.00 ERA in Sanders, a sophomore who was 4-1 on the season. He also has four saves as well from the bullpen, and they’ve all occurred in the last two months of the season.

With how things are trending, however, Marciano could be given the ball once again due to how clinical Sanders has been coming out of the bullpen. 

Starting in half of his 14 games for the Tigers this season, there’s many different ways that Thompson could use Sanders, if necessary. For the ladder half of the season, he’s been coming out of the bullpen, being a piece that Thompson could use at the beginning or end of games. 

I think this starter, even if it’s necessary, could also depend on how many innings Marciano would get in Game 1 against Milwaukee. Many other moving parts could factor in here, including the opponent. However, Auburn won’t have to worry about this if it simply wins out. 

In that case, if the Tigers are on the verge of shutting down a game earlier in the weekend.  Thompson could bring out Sanders to finish off games. Nevertheless, if Auburn is in this situation, I expect Marciano to be the starter for this final game, but it might not be necessary. 

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