The Auburn Tigers had two choices with a stomach illness and nearly seven decades of history working against them. At the Men’s College World Series on Monday, they were behind No. 2 Stanford. The choice was to attack, or go home.After his team recovered for a 6-2 victory, its first in the MCWS in 25 years, Tigers coach Butch Thompson remarked, “My goal is to [assist] a bunch of players and coaches to depart with no regrets. Simply let things be. What are we going to do, make a mistake or mess up something? They should engage in as much attacking as they can.”
The top seed in the MCWS field, Stanford had never left Omaha empty-handed in its previous 17 appearances dating back to 1953. However, Cole Foster’s three-run double in the sixth inning propelled Auburn into Tuesday’s elimination game against Arkansas and sent it home 0-2 on Monday. Foster and several other players, though, were too unwell to stand in front of the media for a post-game statement.
