AUBURN | As soon as Butch Thompson knew this weekend’s series against Xavier was in jeopardy, he started putting together a Plan B. And it turned out to be an even bigger test for No. 22 Auburn.
No. 18 Boston College will visit Plainsman Park this weekend fresh off taking 2 of 3 at No. 11 Duke.
“It’s mind boggling,” said Thompson over the last 48 hours. “Everybody’s been it doing for months, up to a year now, but my first experience and hopefully my last. Once you get to conference play that’s 10 SEC weekends where at least there’s accountability within the conference.
“There’s two more non-conference weekends that are huge for us and filling those and playing them and not sitting those out is very important.”
Xavier experienced some positive COVID-19 tests within its program, but is still looking to play this weekend. The Eagles were scheduled to play at Wake Forest, which had some COVID issues of its own.
“Yeah, there was just a lot of medical concerns on our on our part,” Thompson said. “Once I knew that there were concerns and unknowns about Xavier potentially being able to play and once the series became in jeopardy, you know, college baseball is a close-knit, small community and you start putting out some feelers and before long, you kind of figure out what other series may be in jeopardy. It's just coaches trying to help coaches, basically.”
Thompson said he’s known BC head coach Mike Gambino for a while, which made the process of putting a series together in such a short timeframe easier.
It’ll be the second consecutive weekend the Tigers face tough competition. They went 1-2 in the Round Rock City Classic last weekend, dropping games to Oklahoma and Baylor before a win over Texas A&M.
“So, here we go. Auburn and BC,” Thompson said. “I’ve already heard some people that are really excited. I think our fans are excited. I think, again, back-to-back weekends, you feel like kind of the nation's watching Auburn baseball with an opportunity. I'm happy for Coach Gambino and his program to want to work to make the trip to come to the Plains this weekend.”
Friday’s game will be 4 p.m. CT, Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. Sunday’s finale will be available on SECN+ and ESPN+.
