ATLANTA | A two-hour rain delay couldn’t stop Bailey Horn or Auburn.
Horn threw six shutout innings, three before and three after the delay, as the Tigers beat Georgia Tech 4-1 to win the Atlanta Regional.
"We played about as solid as college baseball game as you can play tonight. So much emotion, so much heart," Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. "I think we made a commitment for this entire series, I could see it in our guys whenever their backs got against the wall. Some plays were made that affected the outcome. Richard Fitts yesterday. Bailey Horn steps up and gives us six innings with a two-hour rain delay. Had surgery 14 months ago. I’m just in awe of a group of young men."
Auburn, which wins an NCAA Regional in back-to-back years for the first time in program history, advances to the Chapel Hill Super Regional against No. 14 national seed North Carolina next weekend.
Horn (4-0) allowed just two hits in a career-high 6.0 innings to earn the win. The sophomore left-hander struck out four and issued one walk on 88 pitches.
"I had talked it over with Coach Thompson and Coach (Steve) Smith about going back out there. I never thought I was going to be out of the game," Horn said. "I knew there was work still to be done, and that we still had a lot of game to play. I knew I had to go out there and do some work."
Cody Greenhill came in to hold the Yellow Jackets to a run over the final 3.0 innings with four strikeouts to earn his 11th save of the season.
Auburn scored all the runs it would need in the sixth on an RBI single by Rankin Woley and a two-RBI double by Steven Williams. The Tigers added a run in the ninth on a two-out RBI single by Ryan Bliss.
Williams was 1 of 4 with two RBI, finishing the Regional with six hits, two home runs and 10 RBI to earn MVP honors. In six NCAA Regional games over the past two seasons, Williams is 14 of 26 with 10 runs scored, two doubles, one triple, three home runs and 15 RBI.
Thompson said he was more impressed with Williams' approach Sunday, going opposite field on his double down the left field line, than with his two-strike, two-out, three-run walk-off home run Saturday night.
"They’re not giving it to us and we have to go that way to have success," Thompson said. "There is level one of getting a pitch and hitting a pitch and then there’s level two when you talk about winning championships where you have to go to Plan B and you still have success. In all honesty as a coach I think I have to be more impressed with that approach tonight, going backside, because that was a deeper level of hitting tonight for that adjustment.”
Auburn, which improves to 36-25, advances to only the third Super Regional in program history and in will compete in a Super Regional in back-to-back years for the first time in program history. The Tigers dropped 2 of 3 at Florida last season.
Auburn has not advanced to the College World Series since 1997.
"That was probably the most complete game we’ve played all year, all-around," Williams said. "Bailey came out with a lot of energy and pounded the zone and got a lot of outs. Our offense, we had quality at-bats throughout the whole game pretty much. That late insurance run, that was huge. I think we can build off this going into North Carolina.”
