Auburn baseball head coach Butch Thompson's secret weapon for 2022? Students.

"Operation Atmosphere" can move the needle for Auburn baseball.

The 2021 season for Auburn baseball did not go according to head coach Butch Thompson's plans. "Getting this pitching staff to be a baton-passing pitching staff and being able to transition through a game," Thompson said. "It's something that we tried to get a handle on (last year) and then the injuries came and everything. I don't think we felt like we were winning there until the end there, when we won three of our last four conference series. But before then, we absolutely got lost in transitions, who to use, and how to work through there."  

Opening the season in Arlington at the State Farm College Baseball Showdown is exciting for the team, and playing three different opponents at that tournament gives them an early opportunity to evaluate guys and see where they are in preparation for the conference slate that begins in just a few weeks.

After a 25-27 record (10-20 record in conference play), with 16 losses by two runs or less & with 10 by a margin of one run, Thompson knew the team needed some additional support for home games. Enter "Operation Atmosphere": a newly-opened space outside of right field, exclusively for students to create an "organic space" to cheer on their Tigers, with enhancements like on-site food trucks for conference games.   

To introduce the space to students, Tuesday night was the inaugural "BP with BT" in Plainsman Park. For a $5 donation to the Hudson Family Foundation, members of the Auburn Intrafraternity Council were invited to an open practice, received dinner and a t-shirt, and an opportunity to participate in a home run derby. The idea for the event may have been conceived by the marketing department, but the driving force behind "Operation Atmosphere" was definitely Coach Thompson. 

"They're in a frenzy, right? Across the street here with the Jungle, with basketball, and even back to football with how many people came. And those students, man, they've done such a great job. It's time for Auburn baseball to step up to the plate and do that." So Auburn's baseball team gathered on the field and became spectators in their own ballpark, watching participating fraternity members gain a new appreciation for exactly how deep it is to left-center. Thompson remarked on Wednesday morning, as he spoke to the Auburn Chamber of Commerce's "Auburn Young Professionals" program, that he was pleased with the turnout of "three to four hundred" students and was hopeful that the energy would carry over to the regular season matchups inside Plainsman Park. "And we need them, right? Coming off the home games and the challenges of last year, we need them in a big way to move our needle like they have in the other sports. It was a tough, below standard year." 

Auburn kicks off the season with three games in Arlington, TX at the State Farm College Baseball Showdown this weekend against Oklahoma, Texas Tech, and Kansas State before christening Plainsman Park's new right field student section on Tuesday, February 23rd against Troy.