'Out of our hands': Will Auburn baseball host an NCAA regional after early SEC Tournament exit?
HOOVER — There's a reason Auburn baseball used closer Blake Burkhalter in the seventh inning of a game the Tigers trailed 1-0.
"There's no tomorrow," Auburn coach Butch Thompson said after a 3-1 loss to Kentucky. "So we lay every chip out on the table to give us a chance to win."
That's the message he wants to send his players as they begin the long wait for the NCAA Tournament. That wait will feel a little extra tense as the Tigers (37-19) hope to host a regional but can only watch other SEC teams trying to leapfrog them.
Thompson and the coaching staff wanted to treat the first-round SEC Tournament game as though everything was on the line. They used relief pitcher Carson Skipper as the starter. They used starter Trace Bright in relief. They turned to Burkhalter in the seventh to keep the deficit slim. (He succeeded, setting up Sonny DiChiara's game-tying home run.)
At what cost? The SEC saves leader had shown too much by the ninth inning, or maybe he was burned out, but whatever the case, the back-to-back home runs he surrendered sent Auburn home early.
"They saw him in two innings – maybe had just seen him enough," Thompson said. "They both looked like forced pitches where it was a changeup up with (Oraj) Anu and a fastball to (Adam) Fogler. ... It’s not always what you throw. It’s where you throw it."
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Auburn's regular season was exceptional after low expectations, but the team will enter the NCAA Tournament having lost three of four games to a Kentucky team that finished 12th in the league.
In the coming days, the players will get a break, Thompson said, and then he'll push them harder. Having lost the opportunity to compete more in Hoover, the starting pitchers will need to throw and maintain routines during the unusually long respite.
All while some uncertainty lingers: The shaky ending might be enough to leave Auburn on the fringes of a top-16 national seed.
Thompson was asked after the loss how he feels about his chance to host a regional.
"I have no idea. I know we’re in a regional. I absolutely think we’ve done enough," he said. "I don’t know that I’m here to make a case."
Then he made one anyway.
Among his points: Auburn had one of the winningest bodies of work in the SEC. "We’ve maintained a top-10 RPI nationally out of 301 schools for a long period of time," he said. "Three games over .500 (in league play). We’ve played good baseball."
The RPI ranking was as high as No. 4 two weeks ago. As of May 24, the Tigers had fallen to No. 8.
The bats have been absent recently, but Thompson isn't questioning the Tigers' focus. And he's confident they can rebound from this because they've proven it with 20 comeback wins this season.
They just hope they have that opportunity to rebound at Plainsman Park.
"Absolutely (hosting a regional) would be my wish and desire, and why you get up and coach hard everyday to bring these players along," Thompson said. "It'll be out of our hands. And that's what I told the players. And that's why Burkhalter comes in in the seventh. There's no tomorrow."
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Will Auburn baseball host NCAA regional after early SEC Tournament exit?
