After a full weekend of baseball on the Plains, the Auburn Tigers were crowned the victors of their NCAA regional final after beating Central Connecticut on Friday, Stetson on Saturday and NC State in the championship game on Sunday.
The Tigers dominated the Wolfpack in the Sunday evening championship game. Things played out pretty evenly through the first three innings, but Auburn blew the game open in the fourth inning, putting 7 runs on the board. They kept it going in the fifth inning, adding three more runs before going scoreless until an Ike Irish solo homerun in the eighth inning.
Freshman pitcher Andreas Alvarez allowed only six hits in his five innings and recorded five strikeouts. Cade Fisher finished the game for the Tigers, who ultimately only allowed one run from NC State.
After winning the regional, the Tigers will host an NCAA super regional at Plainsman Park for the first time in program history. They will face Coastal Carolina in the first game of the super regional. Here's what the team had to say after the win.
Alvarez on his pitching performance, per Auburn Rivals:
“I had the slider working really well tonight and then the fastball. I was able to throw that for a lot of strikes and attack with that. So having the slider and the fastball to work off each other was really what helped tonight.”
Head Coach Butch Thompson on his team's effort against opposing pitchers, per Auburn Undercover:
"Every time that we faced them, whether we had adversity or whether we rose to the challenge and had success, I just kept telling them to bank it. That this is going to make a difference. We saw some good arms this weekend. We saw some lower slot stuff that gave us problems. We saw one of the best closers in college baseball yesterday. We've seen it. All the preparation has been good, playing in our league, seeing really good arms, and did it again this weekend and had success."
Ike Irish on moving on to the super regional, per Auburn Rivals:
"It's unbelievable, not just for me, but for our coaching staff. They put so much time and effort into us, and this is a pretty rewarding feeling. I think it's huge for guys, like Cooper McMurray, Parker Carlson and Ben Schorr, who've been in the program so long, who've seen the ups and downs. To know that their last year is going out on a high note is pretty amazing."