A year ago, Grant Dayton was an anonymous freshman on Auburn’s baseball team, sitting out the season because of a sore elbow.

A month ago, he was a little-known middle reliever, one of a host of young arms in the Tigers’ bullpen.

Today, he’s Auburn’s de facto ace.

The redshirt freshman left-hander will open Southeastern Conference play as AU’s No. 1 starter tonight at Florida. He’s part of a new-look pitching rotation that is long on potential and short on experience.

Auburn’s three weekend starters — Dayton, true freshman Cory Luckie and sophomore Scott Shuman — have thrown a combined 2.2 innings in SEC play, all by Shuman. Of the three, only Luckie started the season in the Tigers’ rotation.

Dayton and Shuman played their way into the rotation over the past two weeks, displacing junior Luke Greinke and sophomore Taylor Thompson.

“I think we made some nice adjustments with our pitching staff this week,” head coach Tom Slater said.

In Slater’s fourth season, youth is once again the story for the Tigers (11-5), who have missed the SEC Tournament the past four seasons. This year’s team features five newcomers in the everyday lineup, in addition to the inexperience in the rotation.

But Slater is confident his team can compete in the SEC. Since being swept in four games by No. 6 Florida State, the Tigers have won seven of eight.

Of course, Auburn has had nonconference success before. Last season, AU went 18-3 in the pre-conference season, then started SEC play 0-8 on the way to a 10-20 record and a last-place finish.

But Slater says the Tigers won’t be affected by last year’s struggles.

“I think last year is last year,” Slater said. “This is a new year, it’s a new team. I don’t think anybody on this team is thinking about last year.

“You want to get that first win under your belt. But I don’t think there’s a whole lot of thoughts about last year going into this weekend.”

This weekend’s three-game series begins at 5:30 p.m. today.

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