Observations: Auburn baseball rallies through the rain — and wins a regional

Butch Thompson's Tigers are heading back to the Supers after a weekend at Plainsman Park that will go down in program history.

(Austin Perryman/Auburn Tigers)

AUBURN — Losing the first game of a regional is supposed to be a death sentence.

That’s even true for hosts, like Auburn was — and still is.

Since 2016, including this upset-filled ongoing 2026 tournament, there have been 23 regional hosts that dropped their opening game. And, of the 23, just five have rallied to win four straight games and advance to the Super Regionals.

Auburn became team No. 5 on Monday night after defeating Milwaukee, 8-3, to cap a had-to-have-it run of four straight wins at Plainsman Park.

“This was the hardest, probably most rewarding thing that I’ve been through,” Auburn head coach Butch Thompson said. “For me personally, to see what these guys had to go through with the weather and the doubleheaders and getting punched in the mouth to get started…

“They found a way.”

The Auburn regional included a bit of everything that makes college baseball the spectacle that it is.

The Tigers opened postseason play against a Milwaukee team that entered Friday’s game six games below .500. And yet, the Tigers found themselves down 10-0 in the fourth, with ace Jake Marciano not making it through two innings.

Auburn wound up losing 13-8, improbably dropping it to the losers bracket, where it was met by NC State — led by Elliot Avent, who had just announced his retirement.

The game had a bit of everything to it.

This time, the Tigers jumped out to a massive early lead, scoring eight in the first and another two in the second to take a 10-0 lead in just the second inning. The Wolfpack posted a five-spot in the third inning to cut it to a 3-run game before the Tigers answered with seven more runs to push their lead back to 10.

A stubborn NC State simply would not go away as it scored six more runs, forcing Auburn to have to use superstar reliever Jackson Sanders to close a 17-13 game that ended with a pitch-clock violation strikeout on a full count.

“Our phrase is ‘We’ve got to.’ We don’t have a choice,” Thompson said after the win over NC State. “We’ve got to keep fighting and find a way through this regional.”

The next day, the Tigers were set, hopefully, for a doubleheader. But first, they had to take care of UCF at 2 p.m.

Actually, 3 p.m.

No, 4:30 p.m.

Let’s try 5:06 p.m. — but, like, actually this time. And let’s add another 30-minute delay in the second inning.

After all of that, Auburn was able to win a 9-3 game where it got a quality start from Alex Petrovic, with Ryan Hetzler slamming the door behind him.

That doubleheader, by the way? Oh, it was still getting played. How about a 10:10 start time?

And, because of how well Hetzler had thrown to end the game, he was given the ball to open the Milwaukee game. He, along with LJ Cormier, did more than enough to lead Auburn to an 8-1 win, setting up the decisive final game.

The game, which was initially set for 5 p.m. Monday, was moved back due to more weather. It created an 8 p.m. start time in which the Tigers sent Marciano back out to right his own wrongs.

Behind him, a Sanders masterclass out of the pen and an explosive sixth inning, the Tigers pulled out an 8-3 victory over the Panthers — their fourth win in three days and setting them up with a Super Regionals date with Ole Miss from Plainsman Park.

That’s a lot, but it was just the tip of the iceberg. And, as Bo Jackson once said, it’s a big-ass iceberg.

Let’s dive into it with a special edition of the Observations.

(Addi Ray/Auburn Tigers)

What on earth got into Chase Fralick?