2 Key Auburn Tigers 'Questionable' for Crucial Series vs. No. 4 Georgia Bulldogs

The No. 5 Auburn Tigers host the No. 4 Georgia Bulldogs in a three-game series starting Thursday night at Plainsman Park. The Bulldogs have already wrapped up the regular-season SEC championship with a 21-6 record, but there is a logjam of teams behind them.

Texas A&M is in second place with a 16-10 conference record, and Tennessee is in 11th place with a 13-14 record. The Tigers are tied with the Tide at 16-11 in fourth place (Alabama has the tiebreaker), so this series still holds significant importance for Auburn.

Head coach Butch Thompson addressed the media on Wednesday afternoon and admitted his team could be without a pair of key players in catcher Chase Fralick and outfielder Ethin Bingaman, as he continues to do battle with a young squad.

"We're at a certain point where we've done this so far. We've been working for a long time. We're banged up, beat up. We have to do some medical stuff going into every series," Thompson said. "The questionable guys for us is, Fralick and Bingaman right now, and then, could be a few others who'll practice today."

Missing those two players for all of, or even part of the series would be a blow to Auburn. Fralick is leading the team with 13 home runs, a 1.036 OPS, and 15 doubles.

Bingaman is third in OPS at .979 and home runs with 10, and he's leading the team with 47 runs scored.

Auburn has run a gauntlet of a schedule with series against No. 7 Florida, No. 9 Oklahoma, No. 7 Texas A&M, and No. 10 Mississippi State, and they added a midweek game against No. 24 Jacksonville State this week.

They won each of their four SEC series against elite competition, but the grind has taken a toll on Thompson's team.

"There's been consequences to this," Thompson said. "I know it doesn't feel like it, but it's been a tough 3 out of 4 weeks on the road. Hopefully, we can muster up enough for what's ahead for this weekend."

Thompson also laid out plans to honor the seniors on the team as well as an Auburn legend who will have his jersey retired.

"We'll honor our seniors. We'll honor our graduates this weekend, and then a couple of huge recognitions of Josh Donaldson being the 5th jersey we'll put on that wall with those 4 amazing guys. A Major League MVP, a guy that I got to coach for a year as an assistant here. I just think the world of Josh, and he's so deserving.

"So, Huge series, one of the best series in the country, but also a couple of really neat texture and things that will be enshrined and be part of the history of our program. So I'm excited for that as well.

1st pitch is scheduled at Plainsman Park for 7:00 p.m. CT and will be shown on SEC Network / ESPN+

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