After making back-to-back Super Regionals in the NCAA Tournament, the Auburn baseball team is looking to build on that on the recruiting trail. Head coach Butch Thompson is knocking it out of the park so far.
The Tigers boast the No. 11 recruiting class in the 2027 cycle, according to Perfect Game rankings, as of Sept. 22. As for Thompson’s 2028 class thus far, the program continues to pick up recruits while currently having the No. 7 class in the country, and Auburn isn’t showing any sign of stopping soon.
To begin the week, the program got a commitment from 2028 middle infielder Colin Anderson, who some believe is a top-five recruit in the entire country. He is the Tigers’ best recruit from the class and was given a Perfect Game grade of 10.
Anderson now joins four others within the 2028 class. Only one of them doesn’t come from the state of Georgia, with the new Tiger coming from Acworth. Auburn also got a commitment from infielder Gavin Gebhardt on Sunday to help boost the group, too, coming from Alpharetta.
Gebhardt, catcher Gavin Greene, right-handed pitcher Mason Cevette, and lefty Lawson Moore currently make up the group that is set to be on the Plains for several seasons to come from that cycle. Still, Thompson will continue to make pushes elsewhere.
As for the Tigers’ 2027 class, 14 players have pledged to Thompson’s vision, which begins with son of a program legend, Frank Thomas III. He joins two others, righty Brennan Neal and catcher KJ Anderson, as the only three players with a player grade of 10 in Auburn’s next recruiting class.
If you look at how the rest of the SEC is building its teams, though, the Tigers still have plenty of work to do on the recruiting trail.
Auburn’s 2027 cycle sees them behind nine SEC programs in the top 10 of the overall rankings. The only other schools is TCU, which is due to the 19 recruits it currently has. The Tigers are ahead of other in-conference schools like Oklahoma, South Carolina and Georgia, which won both the SEC Championship and the regular season championship last season.
Thompson’s 2028 class sees five of the six ahead of them from the SEC as well.
Fortunately for Auburn, the program still has the youth that will carry over with each season, barring early exits due to the MLB Draft. Despite having mostly underclassmen in its lineup this past season, the Tigers saw two of their signature infielders, Chris Rembert and Eric Guevara, and a starting pitcher, Alex Petrovic, have their dreams come true back in July.
Besides that, and a handful of relievers and high school commits, Thompson should have mostly familiar faces on the mound and at bat next season.
However, the only aspect of the game the Auburn head coach currently controls, besides the practices, is the recruits coming into the program. Especially heading into the fall, Thompson has done so effectively to lay out the foundation on the Plains in years to come.
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