Butch Thompson reveals what benefits Auburn can use from its last College World Series appearance

Auburn baseball is back in the College World Series for the second time in four seasons, meaning their upperclassman are some of the more experienced veterans in all of college baseball.

“This is a players’ game. Practice is for the coaches, games are for the players,” Auburn head coach Butch Thompson said. “I think having a program there recently, players that have been there, that’s more powerful. When you haven’t been there in 22 years, that’s hard.

“We have some players on the team that have been there, it’s more powerful to be player driven. I’ve coached in the old Rosenblatt. I’ve been left on that field after 13 days and losing a national championship [as an assistant coach at Mississippi State in 2013]. I have some experience. Hopefully there’s some words and we’ll limit distractions.”

Thompson dubbed College World Series opponent Ole Miss as a special ball club that have positioned themselves and righted the ship since their mid-season fall from grace. Before that, however, the Rebels were the nation’s No. 1 team during a series at Auburn where they stole two of the three games from the Tigers.

While the matchup breeds familiarity, Thompson emphasized that neither team are anywhere close to the ones that battled at Plainsman Park back in March, though the players are certainly familiar with one another, which helps.

With several upperclassman still on the roster from the Auburn team that made the College World Series in 2019 and the rest of the roster gaining experience against the Rebels during the season, the lights shouldn’t be too bright for Auburn with their veterans leading the charge.

“Hopefully we can offer some line of protection because we’ve been out there. I understand those traps and we’ll try and limit that with this team,” Thompson said. “You can hear it in their voices, there’s an intention of not getting there, there’s an intention of going for it and having success. It already makes me feel pretty good before we take off, that they are interested in having success and play championship-level baseball.

“Thinking about a championship, that was my goal a few weeks ago. It was a bold enough statement, but when you believe and trust in a group, it’s time and okay to call that out.”

Auburn-Ole Miss is set for game 4 of the College World Series. First pitch is slated for Saturday at 7 p.m. ET with ESPN2 carrying the national broadcast.