AUBURN | Auburn came into the Atlanta Regional batting .260 as a team and averaging 5.7 runs and 0.7 home runs per game.
In three games including two against No. 3 national seed Georgia Tech, the Tigers batted .324 with 26 runs scored and four home runs. Most importantly, they came home with three wins and a second consecutive trip to a Super Regional.
It all started with a return to the basics after a 1-2 showing in the SEC Tournament in Hoover a week before.
“We took a deep breath and I went back as a coach and basically went back to the fundamentals of what we were trying to do,” Auburn hitting coach Gabe Gross said. “And I thought we performed out there, which is a lot of being balanced, hitting the ball the ball the other way when it’s pitched that way, being able to sit on a fast ball and react to a breaking ball.
“It just wan’t anything special, stuff we’ve been doing all year, but it gave us a chance for everything to slow down and I think everybody to catch their breath and realize this is what we’re going to have to do. And they went out and executed. The credit goes to those guys. They went out there and played their butts off.”
Steven Williams led the hit parade batting .462 with a double, two home runs and 10 RBI. He hit a game-winning, three-run walk-off home run Saturday and drove in two more key runs Sunday with a double down the left field line to earn National Player of the Week honors from Perfect Game/Rawlings.
Williams raised his batting average from .227, the lowest among Auburn’s starters, to .241 in just three games.
“To get on a bigger stage and have them play better on a bigger stage, man, it just makes you proud. Makes you proud to coach them,” Gross said. “To see them have at-bats under very difficult circumstances with a ton of pressure on them, and to be able to still stick with a plan, execute, come through — you know Steven Williams’ walk-off home run, two strikes, he’s thinking about going the other way, the guy hangs a breaking ball, speeds his bat up and it’s out of the ballpark — and that’s executing at a high level under real pressure.”
Williams wasn’t the only standout in Atlanta. Ryan Bliss also batted .462 with a home run and five RBI. Judd Ward hit .417 from the leadoff spot, notched his ninth outfield assist and made a spectacular leaping catch in left field for the first out of the ninth inning of Sunday’s game. Both were named to the All-Tournament team.
Will Holland (.400), Rankin Woley (.385 with four RBI), Kason Howell (.333) and Edouard Julien (.300) all swung the bats well for the Tigers.
“All year long we haven’t had the statistical year that most of the guys on this team had wanted. But because of that, in certain ways, it has taught us to be resilient, it has taught us how to be battle our guts out. And I thought (Sunday night) this was our type of game that we just win,” Gross said.
“I thought we had some good at-bats early. I thought their guy made some big pitches in some big moments that kept us from scoring early. We kept grinding, we kept grinding and we finally got a couple to fall through. You know, Steven Williams two strikes, Ryan Bliss two strikes, that’s Auburn baseball right now.”
Auburn will play No. 14 national seed North Carolina in the Chapel Hill Super Regional beginning Saturday at 11 a.m. CT on ESPN2. Sunday’s game will be 10:30 a.m. on ESPN and if necessary, the two teams will play Monday at noon on ESPN2.
The winner advances to the College World Series June 15-26 in Omaha, Neb. The Chapel Hill Super Regional champion will play the winner of the Starkville Super Regional (Mississippi State vs. Stanford) in the first round.
