Butch Thompson explains how he created excitement around the Auburn baseball program

Auburn‘s trip to Omaha might have ended shy of their ultimate goal, but the program is experiencing a renaissance over the last several seasons, transforming from a SEC bottom feeder to College World Series regular.

With two trips to the CWS in four seasons, head coach Butch Thompson is just getting started following the conclusion of his sevenths season as Auburn’s head coach.

“I just doubled down and believed in what we’re doing. I doubled down, wanted people to be there,” Thompson said. “I didn’t know a hundred percent sure that would end, our last game would be hosting a Regional there.

“But sometimes you just bet on yourself and your program and you try to double down on it. You ask some people, can we do XYZ? Can we do a few things? And everybody said absolutely. So team effort across the board.”

Betting on themselves has created the most successful five-season span since the Hal Baird era over two decades ago. Their CWS berth in 2019 followed by a 2020 season that was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic before SEC play, but was off to a hot 13-5 start. 2021’s shortened season saw the Tigers end with a 25-27 record, but bounced back in a huge way this past season.

That success on the field has bred fanfare that hasn’t been seen in Auburn, Alabama in a while – just another sport the fanbase has latched on to during the football team’s down years.

“We sold the most season tickets for our program, exceeded ’20 after the ’19 College World Series team, after coming off a tough year last year, we exceeded the ’20 mark,” Thompson said. “Sold more tickets in history of our program.

“A lot of people stepped up to the plate for this team before we ever played a game. I’ll never forget that. I appreciate that. You know what, I thought our team rewarded them at the end. And I thought that was a nice organic event for us by doing the operation atmosphere to where they stepped up to the plate for us, and I thought we returned the favor at the end of the postseason.”

In the last two full, non-COVID impacted seasons, Auburn has notched a combined 81-47 overall record with CWS appearances across both years. If that trend continues – Auburn will be a force to be reckoned with in the SEC for the foreseeable future.