Auburn baseball's pitching rotation set for Florida series

The No. 11 Auburn Tigers hit the road this weekend to face No. 18 Florida, and will send its best arms into battle.

The Tigers will go with the pitching rotation of Andreas Alvarez, Jake Marciano, and Alex Petrovic for this weekend's series in Gainesville, a rotation that has anchored the last two weekend series. Since moving Alvarez from midweek starts to the weekend rotation, and bumping Jackson Sanders to the bullpen for weekend games, Auburn has won its last two weekend SEC series over Arkansas and Kentucky, and will look to keep its good fortune going this weekend at Florida.

In two weekend starts, Alvarez has logged 15 strikeouts and has given up nine hits over 12 innings, picking up two wins. In his last start, Alvarez allowed three hits and struck out five batters in Auburn's 12-5 series-opening win over Kentucky last Friday. Having Alvarez on the mound is usually a good sign for Auburn's offense, as the Tigers have scored 10+ runs in each of Alvarez's last three starts.

Marciano looks to shake off his last start after giving up five runs on eight hits over four innings in Saturday's middle game with Kentucky, which resulted in his second loss of the season. Entering this weekend's series, Marciano boasts a 1.88 ERA over 52 2/3 innings with 71 strikeouts and just seven walks.

Petrovic is 6-1 this season and has won his last two starts, which were deciding game three's in both the Arkansas and Kentucky series. In those two starts, Petrovic struck out 12 batters and gave up just three earned runs on eight hits. He gave up five hits to Kentucky's lineup last Sunday, but kept them off the board over seven complete innings in the Tigers' 11-0 run-rule victory over the Wildcats.

Jackson Sanders is also a strong option to enter the game from the bullpen. He missed an appearance in the Kentucky series, but allowed just one hit over four innings of relief in Auburn's 8-3 win over Arkansas on April 4. Expect Sanders to be used as a piece to slam the door on the Florida offense that ranks in the lower half of several offensive categories in the SEC.

Game one of Auburn's series with Florida begins Thursday at 6 p.m. CT.

This article originally appeared on Auburn Wire: Auburn baseball pitching rotation vs Florida Gators