The Auburn baseball team was picked to finish second in the SEC West by Baseball America, while junior outfielder Mike Bianucci was tabbed a preseason First Team All-SEC by the same organization, it was announced on Thursday.

Auburn was picked to finish behind Ole Miss in the West and is a projected NCAA Team. It is the highest preseason projected finish for Auburn, which was picked to finish fourth in the West by both the league coaches and SEBaseball.com.

Bianucci, who has already been named a Preseason All-American by Baseball America and Rivals.com, joins Vanderbilt’s Dominic de la Osa and Ole Miss’ Jordan Henry in the first team outfield, which is the same three outfielders on SEBaseball.com’s first team.

Junior Luke Greinke was selected as SEBaseball.com’s second team utility player while Paul Burnside was one of three starting pitchers listed on the second team.

As a whole, the website listed the Auburn pitching staff as the third best in the league behind Ole Miss and Georgia.

Freshman Hunter Morris also earned praise from both organizations as SEBaseball.com picked him as the Best Freshman in the league while Baseball America listed him in its top two newcomers.

Men’s tennis earns first road win of season
ATLANTA — Auburn’s men’s tennis team moved to 3-1 on the season as it defeated Georgia Tech, 5-2, on Thursday in Atlanta at the Bill Moore Tennis Center.

The Tigers broke the Yellow Jackets’ five-match win streak, handing Georgia Tech (5-1) its first loss of the season, while Auburn started its road season in the win column.

“It was a good team win for us” head coach Eric Shore said.

“We had good momentum coming out of doubles and I am really proud of how we fought back in singles to come out with the win.”

The Tigers started the match on the right foot, sweeping all three doubles match-ups to earn the first point.

Track and field travels to three different meets
The Auburn men’s and women’s track and field teams will split up to compete in a variety of places across the country today and Saturday.

Members of the squads will be at meets in Fayetteville, Ark., Ames, Iowa, and Seattle during the fourth indoor weekend of competition of the season for the Tigers.

A group of primarily sprinters and hurdlers will be in Fayetteville for the Tyson Invitational, hosted by the University of Arkansas.

Several throwers will visit the Midwest for the Iowa State Classic, and a group of distance runners will head to the University of Washington for the Husky Classic on
Saturday.

The Tigers were successful last season at the Tyson Invitational, as several Tigers posted provisional qualifying marks.

Among those who are still competing on this year’s squad, Tracy Ann Rowe improved her qualifying times in the 60m and 200m, Jacob Dunkleberger improved his mark in the weight throw while finishing second to teammate Cory Martin and Edis Elkasevic met the provisional mark in the men’s shot put.

Also, Kerron Stewart improved her automatic qualifying time in the 200m, while Donald Thomas tied his school indoor record in the high jump.

Women’s tennis travels to face Florida State
The No. 30 Auburn women’s tennis team (5-1, 0-0 SEC) will travel to Tallahassee, Fla., to take on No. 22 Florida State (6-0, 0-0 ACC) today at 2 p.m.

Both the Tigers and Seminoles have a shutout streak going — Auburn with five in a row and Florida State with six.

The Seminoles also have a streak of 50 consecutive singles and doubles victories to Auburn’s 45.

Auburn looks to break FSU’s streak and extend their own.

Today will mark the two programs’ 14th meeting. Florida State leads the series, 11-2.

The last time the two teams met was in 2006, when the Seminoles edged the Tigers, 4-3.

Following their match with FSU, the Tigers will return to their home state on Saturday to take on the Troy University Trojans in Troy at 1 p.m.