OMAHA | Step by step Butch Thompson is building Auburn into one of the nation’s best college baseball programs.

After being eliminated in two games at the College World Series Wednesday afternoon, the next step for Thompson’s Tigers is to return to Omaha and make a run at the program’s first-ever national championship.

And the experience they gained the past week in Omaha will be very valuable as they prepare for the 2020 season.

“I think you’ve seen it pay off with the last two clubs,” Thompson said. “I think you’ve seen it pay off getting to a Regional, and then coming back and seeing what’s possible and get to a Super Regional, and coming back, seeing what’s possible and getting to a College World Series. I was wanting to skip a step on the staircase.

“The intentions won’t change. I think at the end of every year, I’ve had one year where I’ve been satisfied. We won a national championship. Every other year I’ve ever coached, I’ve felt like a failure and I do today. But as far as our players and our program and everybody that supports it, we should feel really good about where we’ve got Auburn baseball.”

Auburn lost to Mississippi State 5-4 Sunday, giving up four runs in the ninth inning and then lost 5-3 to Louisville Wednesday in a game that was delayed for more than 20 hours after playing four innings Tuesday.

But the sting of those two losses can’t erase the impressive run the Tigers made as No. 2 seed in the Atlanta Regional, knocking off No. 3 national seed Georgia Tech and No. 14 national seed North Carolina on the road to advance to their first CWS in 22 years.

“Having this experience for everybody and playing deep into June is going to be huge,” said junior Rankin Woley, who went to the CWS with LSU in 2017. “Going through the adversity, especially. We’ve had so many ups and downs this season. People counted us out. No one expected us to be here, and having guys be able to play on the big stage like this and go through the SEC one time, a lot of the freshmen—even though Bliss and Kason and them didn’t play like a freshmen and a lot of the pitchers didn’t pitch like freshmen, it was still their freshman year.

“So they’re going to come back and they’ve got one year of SEC experience under their belt and we’ve got a lot of seniors coming back and Conor (Davis) ended the season on a homer, so that’s a little silver lining, positive note for next year. This is going to sting for a while, but we’re going to use it as fuel to get back to the fall.”

Davis, who plans to return for his senior season, had two doubles and a solo home run Wednesday, becoming the first Auburn player with three extra-base hits in a CWS game. He gives a lot of credit to Thompson and how he’s built AU’s program into a winner.

“I think it's just a testimony to Coach Thompson, the type of man he is and the leadership role he's brought to Auburn baseball,” Davis said. “Two years ago I ended my freshman year in a regional in Tallahassee, and last year a super regional in Florida. Just to get here and to make a mark like we have, it’s been 22 years and we've been working really hard.

“I just can't wait to see where the program goes with Coach Thompson at its head. So it's very exciting to see for the future.”