HOOVER — Auburn’s sloppy loss Friday didn’t have any effect on coach John Pawlowski’s opinion about where the Tigers should be playing their NCAA regional next week.

HOOVER — His coach had a feeling that he was “maxing out,” and he wasn’t too overconfident to believe his stuff was as sharp as it had been nearly an hour earlier.

HOOVER — Brian Fletcher probably had some bad memories streaming through his head when Blake Cooper plunked him on the hand with a fastball in Thursday’s first inning.

HOOVER — To open the conference season, Cory Luckie saw the bats behind him light up Georgia for 20 runs.

HOOVER — The shoulder-to-shoulder crowd that filled the seats at Regions Park for Auburn’s showdown with Alabama marked one of the largest turnouts for an opening game in SEC Tournament history.

Auburn first baseman Hunter Morris has been named the SEC Baseball Player of the Year, the conference announced Tuesday afternoon.

About an hour before practice Monday, Cory Luckie already had a pretty good hunch about what advice coach John Pawlowski would give to the Tigers for today’s 9:30 a.m. SEC Tournament opener against Alabama.

Auburn first baseman Hunter Morris has been named the SEC Baseball Player of the Year, the conference announced Tuesday afternoon.