What Auburn said about playing Ole Miss baseball in the College World Series

Ole Miss baseball returns to the College World Series for the first time since 2014 and will open play against SEC West rival Auburn in Omaha, Nebraska, on Saturday (6 p.m. CT, ESPN2).

Auburn coach Butch Thompson, seniors Sonny DiChiara, Kason Howell and Carson Skipper were asked Thursday about the matchup against the Rebels (37-22). Here’s what they had to say:

The Tigers (42-20) will start with Joseph Gonzalez on the mound. The sophomore from Humacao, Puerto Rico. was unavailable when the teams met in March to open SEC play, and since he’s returned Gonzalez has been slowly transitioned into Auburn’s No. 1 starter.

"He’s arguably our best starter,” Thompson said. “He’s gone the longest per start. And we're excited to let Joseph get an opportunity to start us off here.”

The Tigers will be hitting against Dylan DeLucia, who threw 3⅓ innings out of the bullpen in a 13-8 Ole Miss win on March 17, but has grown into a much different role since, similar to Gonzalez.

“The pitching matchup with these two guys that didn't really play this role the first time around, that's another piece to the intrigue,” Thompson said. “It should be interesting for the two clubs. I know the fans are going to enjoy every bit of it.”

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Though he’s fully committed to winning a national championship with Auburn, Thompson was born in Aberdeen, Mississippi — just an hour’s drive from Oxford — and said he was an Ole Miss fan growing up.

His love for baseball came from how much the state values the sport, and he remains proud of his Magnolia State roots.

“In the state of Mississippi there's a lot of pride in baseball,” Thompson said. “Even though I'm at Auburn in a neighboring state, I have a lot of pride in the folks that have done so well and came out of the great state of Mississippi.”

It’s always hard to read into a series so early in conference play, especially when the scores were so lopsided. The Tigers lost two games by an average of 10 runs either side of a 19-5 win.

“Since we played (Ole Miss) the first time we've kind of hit our stride,” Skipper said. “That first weekend, SEC weekend, everybody's jittery and ready to go. But at the same time, not everything is solidified. Not everything's where you want it to be. So it's kind of two different teams playing Saturday. It will be fun to see.”

DiChara agreed.

“I think we've grown into our team identity,” DiChiara said. “When you hit the SEC in conference play, you kind of hit the ground running, you have to figure out who you are real quick.”

Howell referenced one of Thompson’s mantras to describe how the Tigers are going to approach the opening game of the CWS.

“‘You don't think, you just do,'” Howell said. “That's one of coach Thompson's quotes. And I think that's what we're looking forward to is we're not going to think about the first time we played them, we're just going to play our game and try to play at a high level.”

Alberto Camargo is a sports intern with the Knoxville-News Sentinel. Contact him at acamargo@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter @albaretoe.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: What Auburn said about playing Ole Miss baseball in the CWS