For the second season in a row, Auburn baseball’s season will end with a home loss in the Super Regional round of the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers fell to Ole Miss 5-3 for the second straight game, despite an early lead, to end the 2026 season on Saturday night at Plainsman Park. The Rebels would score their first runs in the sixth inning, then use a three-run eighth to take the lead and put a cap on the Super Regional series to send the program to the College World Series. Auburn got the game going with an RBI single by Bub Terrell in the fourth inning. It would eventually score two runs, and head coach Butch Thompson believed that the game was going in their favor early. “I believe the game got in a good rhythm for us, and, of course, when they tied it, it changed that,” he said after the game. “But, it’s still a tied game through six innings, or whatever that was. That just seemed like it would make it harder, because they absolutely pitched it great.”The Ole Miss relievers had their best stuff, only allowing one hit and giving the Rebels the momentum to plate five runs in the last three innings played over the weekend. It was enough to give their College World Series appearance their first since the 2022 season. That was the last time the program won it all. On the mound, Auburn pitcher Alex Petrovic threw a standout five innings while only allowing a hit. Then, in the sixth, he would allow a leadoff single while standout slugger Judd Utermark doubled to bring in two runs to tied the game at 2-2. That would be the final batter of his season. “He was settled early, but I thought he maintained his fastball and lost his offspeed those first two runs,” Thompson said.The Auburn head coach said that the Rebels’ relievers “just outlasted” standout pitcher Jackson Sanders for the remainder of the game. Sanders would give up back-to-back home runs to Will Furniss and Tristan Bissetta to plate three runs and take a big lead at that point in the game. Despite getting a run in from a sacrifice fly from Taylor Belza, Auburn didn’t have enough consistency at the plate to get back into the game, ending its season with plenty of positives, but a negative of an inconsistent offense. On offense, once again, the Tigers struggled with runners in scoring position. Auburn was 1-of-10 in that situation on Saturday, having the chances but being unable to capitalize on another SEC team that didn’t have the best regular season compared to the home program. “I thought we’d match good, and I think we did,” Thompson said. “I think both of those game, I just thought ‘Once we tied it, or once we were up 2-0, we need to be the next team to score,’ and they scored.”Now, Auburn will head into the offseason with the opportunity to bring every piece back from the 2026 season. However, Thompson will look to keep his strongest nucleus within the program as the transfer portal and MLB Draft loom. Sign up for our free Auburn Tigers newsletter and follow us on Facebook and X for the latest news!Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow