ATLANTA | Auburn is in the driver’s seat of the Atlanta Regional, but there’s still work to do.
The Tigers will face the winner of today’s elimination game between No. 1 seed Georgia Tech and No. 3 seed Coastal Carolina needing one win to advance to a second consecutive Super Regional. Coastal or Tech would have to beat Auburn twice, once Sunday night and again Monday, in order to advance.
The Tigers find themselves in this position thanks in large part to Steven Williams, who belted a two-strike, two-out, 3-run home run over the right field wall in the bottom of the ninth to give Auburn a 6-5 walk-off win over Georgia Tech Saturday night.
“Steven could have popped up right there and we could be trying to win three ballgames,” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. “That’s where I feel like something special is going on. Baseball, it’s that time of the year. You’re going to see that around the country. It’s amazing what these young people can do when they don’t quit.”
Auburn will likely start sophomore left-hander Bailey Horn, who is 3-0 with a 7.56 ERA this season. In his last outing in the SEC Tournament, Horn held Tennessee to a run on one hit in 4.0 innings to earn a win. He struck out six and issued one walk.
If the Tigers lead or it’s a close game, they’ll like use Cody Greenhill to close it out Sunday. If not, they will hold Greenhill to start on Monday.
“I do not want to get out of here and Cody Greenhill not factor into us winning or losing,” Thompson said. “I do think that’s an option. You’ve seen us use him four innings, five innings. We like him better in one outing than two.”
Sunday evening’s game is scheduled for 5 p.m. CT on ESPN3.
