Kason Howell on Auburn eliminating three top Pac-12 teams: 'We want to represent the SEC well'

The Pac-12 will be having nightmares about Auburn until first pitch of next season.

The Tigers made their living against West Coast teams over the last month, eliminating three of their top squads during their College World Series journey. First, UCLA and Oregon State went down, and then Auburn sent Stanford home from Omaha.

Afterwards, Auburn outfielder Kason Howell spoke about what it meant to represent the SEC by taking care of business against the Pac-12 squads.

“Anytime we can play good teams, we want to represent the SEC well,” explained Howell. “Obviously all Pac-12 teams we played, I respect them. They have really good players. But being from the Southeastern Conference, having four Western Division teams in here, we just want to play good baseball and try to represent our conference well.

“Obviously it feels good to win against such great teams like Stanford and Oregon State and UCLA. All have great programs, all have great players. We’re just trying to represent the conference well.”

While Auburn wasn’t able to end their season with a title, the run the Tigers went on provided their fans, players and coaches with memories that’ll last a lifetime. Moving forward, Auburn will hope to build on their tremendous season, and eventually parlay it into a championship.

Butch Thompson opens up about Auburn’s team chemistry following emotional elimination

Moreover, Auburn skipper Butch Thompson opened up on his team and their chemistry after an emotional loss against Arkansas that eliminated the Tigers from the College World Series. He talked about how this was an incredible experience for everyone involved with the program before specifically shouting out the team’s managers. Seeing how close everyone from top to bottom was meant the world to Thompson.

“It means everything,” Thompson said. “This will be an experience — we try to tell them we want to do everything we can to create the best experience of your life. I think in a lot of instances already hearing from the players initially, I think they appreciate it and they know how our administration, our university and our fans gave them the royal treatment this year.

“And I thought they did their part in saying ‘thank you.’ And our hardest workers are probably our managers. Good time to get off the game and talk about that. Trent Reynolds, Bailey Decker, Quinn Stromberg, Jay Hawley, those guys, they’re there before, they’re washing the guys’ clothes.

“And every one of these teams has great people like that. The players do so much but they’re given so much. They did an amazing job of showing appreciation.”

Auburn finished the regular season with a 43-22 regular-season record and finished three games over .500 in SEC play. While there was a quick loss in the conference tournament, the Tigers won three straight in the Auburn Regional before traveling west and taking Game 3 against Oregon State in the Supers.

Thompson said the entire postseason, from start to finish, was a top-level experience for his program.

“But I think it was a great experience for every one of us. I think we found a ton of positive stuff out of this season,” Butch Thompson said.