< Previous18 COACH BUTCH THOMPSON State as both associate head coach and pitching coach. A native of Amory, Miss., Thompson has coached 33 Division I All-Americans and 43 all-conference performers. He has seen 20 of his former pitchers called up to Major League Baseball, including 14 since 2014. Thompson has also turned 38 pitchers who went undrafted out of high school into MLB draft picks. Along with his pitching pedigree, Thompson is also considered one of the top recruiters in the country. Since 2003, he has secured 15 recruiting classes that were ranked in the top 10 by either Baseball America or Perfect Game, including the program record No. 4 class in 2017 and No. 5 class in 2022. His classes signed from 2006-08 at Auburn each ranked in the top 18 nationally. In 30 years of coaching at the collegiate level, including 21 in the Southeastern Conference, Thompson has coached nine College World Series participants, including leading the Tigers to the program’s first trip to the College World Series in 22 years in 2019 and taking the team back for the second time in three postseasons in 2022. Auburn is one of six program to appear in two of the last three College World Series, and Thompson is one of five active SEC coaches who have taken their program to a pair of College World Series in a three-year span. Thompson has also coached one national champion and a national runner- up, won nine conference championships and made 18 postseason appearances. Thompson was named the 2006 Fellowship of Christian Athletes SEC Coach of the Year while at Auburn and the 2014 Baseball America and American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) National Assistant Coach of the Year while at Mississippi State. During his tenure with the Tigers, Thompson has led the team to three straight NCAA Tournament appearances from 2017-19 for the first time since 2001-03, including back-to-back super regionals in 2018 and 2019 for the first time in program history. Auburn has finished five of Thompson’s seven seasons in the top BUTCH THOMPSON Head Coach CLICK FOR FULL BIO Butch Thompson was named Auburn’s head baseball coach on October 22, 2015 and enters his eighth season with the Tigers in 2023. Thompson has returned the Tigers to prominence in seven seasons on The Plains as he has guided the team to a 222-164 overall record and has advanced to the NCAA Tournament four of the last five postseasons, including three Super Regional appearances in the last four years and two trips to the College World Series in the last three postseasons. Thompson, who spent three seasons as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Auburn from 2006-08, returned to The Plains after seven seasons at Mississippi 19 COACH BUTCH THOMPSON 25, including three in the top 10. The No. 5 national ranking to finish 2022 was tied for the second highest mark in program history. The 2022 season marked one of the most successful in recent program history as the Tigers went 43-22 overall and 16-13 in SEC play. The 43 wins were tied for the most since 1999, and the winning conference record marked the Tigers’ third under Thompson after doing so just once from 2004-15. Auburn went 37-18 in the regular season and lost back-to-back games on just three occasions before being selected as a regional host for the first time since 2010. The Tigers swept Southeastern, Florida State and UCLA in the regional, outscoring them 51-18 in the process, before becoming the first team to defeat Oregon State in a home super regional by taking down the Beavers in a dramatic winner-take-all game three. Auburn moved on to Omaha and defeated Stanford 6-2 to secure the program’s first College World Series win since 1997. In seven seasons at MSU, Thompson made four NCAA regional trips, two Super Regionals, won the SEC Tournament and advanced to the College World Series finishing as NCAA runner-up in 2013. In three of his last four seasons in Starkville, the Bulldogs’ staff ERA finished no higher than 3.06. Thompson’s 2013 pitching staff was one of two nationally to finish in the top 15 in ERA, strikeouts per nine innings and hits allowed per nine innings. In addition to his experience at Auburn and Mississippi State, Thompson also spent four seasons at Georgia from 2002-05, including a trip to the College World Series in 2004. While there, he guided the development of future Major Leaguers Josh Fields, Mitchell Boggs and Brooks Brown. Thompson launched his coaching career as pitching coach and top assistant at Huntingdon College (Ala.) in 1993, before returning to his alma mater in Birmingham, where he helped lead the Panthers to back-to-back Southern States Conference Championships and in 1995 coached BSC to its first NAIA World Series berth. Thompson left BSC briefly to serve as head coach at Jefferson State Community College in Birmingham in 1997. While at JSCC, he was honored as the Regional Tournament Coach of the Year, the ABCA Alabama Junior College Coach of the Year and the Southeast Region Coach of the Year after guiding JSCC to a 39-21 mark, the AJCAA Region 22 State Championship and a third-place finish in the NJCAA Division II World Series. He returned to Birmingham-Southern as top assistant the following season, beginning a four-year run during the most successful span in BSC baseball history. The Panthers won 196 games and four TranSouth Conference Championships and made three-consecutive appearances in the NAIA World Series. BSC’s 2001 team posted a school-best 55-11 mark and captured the NAIA National Championship. In 2002, Thompson joined the SEC baseball coaching fraternity as a pitching coach and recruiting coordinator at Georgia and has been a part of the league for the past 17 seasons. Thompson currently serves as the large- school representative for the Alabama Baseball Coaches Association and is an All- American committee member representing the South region for the ABCA. Thompson prepped at Amory (Miss.) High School and later starred as a pitcher at Itawamba (Miss.) Community College from 1989-90. He is a member of both the ICC Athletic Hall of Fame (Class of 2014) and MACCC Hall of Fame (Class of 2021). Thompson earned a Bachelor’s Degree in History at BSC in 1992 and completed a Master’s Degree in Sports Administration at UAB in 1996. 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