It's officially baseball season. Auburn starts its season at home this afternoon against Southeast Missouri at 4 ET.

That's a picture of Jon Luke Jacobs, who gets the nod as the Tigers' opening-day starter. In advance of the first pitch, I wrote this season preview for today's newspaper. Here's how it starts:

AUBURN, Ala. — By the end of last season, Auburn baseball coach John Pawlowski could count his reliable pitching options on one hand, a severe limitation in a hitter-friendly conference such as the SEC.

“The guys worked extremely hard last year, but, in this league, you have to have depth and enough arms because it is such an offensive game,” he said.

Pawlowski hopes the Tigers have at least solved their pitching staff’s numbers problem in his second year at the helm.

Auburn, which opens its season this afternoon at home against Southeast Missouri, returns its top five pitchers from last year and has added a few more arms to get the program back at a competitive level in the SEC.

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