AUBURN | When the preseason SEC poll came out in February, Auburn was picked to finish 13th out of 14 SEC teams, last in the West and had zero players on the All-SEC first and second teams.

Good thing they went ahead and played.

The Tigers finished fifth in the SEC and could have been fourth if not for some untimely weather delays. Sonny DiChiara was named co-SEC Player of the Year and two other players received postseason recognition.

That’s what I call exceeding expectations.

Auburn is one of the least-advantaged teams in the SEC when it comes to the scholarship money it can distribute to its players. Plainsman Park is nice but AU is in the bottom half of the conference when it come to overall baseball facilities.

Despite all that, Butch Thompson and his staff have routinely fielded a quality, competitive baseball team the past seven seasons with the exception of last year’s group, which was devastated by injuries.

Going into this year, Auburn had to replace its top three starters from last season along with four of its top hitters.

Yet, here it is hosting an NCAA Regional for the first time in 12 years, just three years after booking a trip to the College World Series for the first time in 22 years.

Thompson and crew are just checking off those boxes again and again, and there could be many more to check off in the future.

More potential changes are in the NCAA pipeline including eliminating scholarship caps for sports that offer partials — baseball has just 11.7 divided among 27 players — and abolishing the limits on coaches allowed per team.

New restrictions, if any, would be set by a conference.

This could finally give an AU staff, which is already well regarded as recruiters, an even playing field when it comes to acquiring talent.

There’s another change that could, and should, happen this weekend. And that’s building a better atmosphere at Plainsman Park.

The attendance has been up this spring including the first sellout of a midweek game in program history. But it’s still a little too quiet, not rowdy enough to give the Tigers a true home field advantage like the football team routinely enjoys right across the street.

Auburn is 22-9 at home. It’s 16-7 in games decided by two runs or less. It’s bound to be in some tight games in the Regional and that’s where an intimidating atmosphere can make a difference.

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In today’s musical journey, we go back 113 years to the birth of a jazz music legend. On May 30, 1909, Benny Goodman, known as the King of Swing, was born as the 9th of 12 children of jewish immigrants from Russia. His father was a tailor and the family lived in the Maxwell Street neighborhood of Chicago, a slum near the railroad tracks populated mainly by immigrant families. The family was able to scrape enough money together for music lessons for Benny and two of his brothers and he started earning money for his clarinet play at the age of 12 in 1921. His father died after being struck by a car in 1926 and the same year, Goodman made his first recordings with the Ben Pollack Orchestra. After moving to New York, Goodman began playing with a number of top artists from his time including Glenn Miller, Ted Lewis, Ben Selvin and Tommy Dorsey. His music began to climb the charts, recording his first top 10 hit, Ain’t Cha Glad, in 1934 with Jack Teagarden, and his first No. 1, Moonglow. Another No. 1 came with 1937’s Sing, Sing, Sing (With A Swing). A six-month stint doing a late-night radio show with his own band followed by a tour helped kick off the swing era, which emphasizes the off-beat and saw the bass guitar, guitar, saxophone and, of course, his clarinet become favored instruments. It quickly became a hit with teenagers with Goodman’s band as the leader.

The swing movement, however, had its roots in cities such as Chicago and New Orleans and with artists such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Coleman Hawkins and Benny Carter. One of the most important concerts of the era came on Jan. 16, 1938 when Goodman’s band played at Carnegie Hall. It’s regarded as the moment jazz was accepted into the mainstream. Goodman is credited for helping to integrate music years before Jackie Robinson did the same for baseball, adding Teddy Wilson and Lionel Hampton to his band in the 1930’s. While swing went out of favor in the late 1940’s, Goodman continued to work perform up until his death of a heart attack in 1986. He was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame in 1957 and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.