It took Rob Vaughn all of about five minutes to understand the importance of the in-state rivalry between Alabama and Auburn after visiting Plainsman Park for the first time as Crimson Tide head coach.
With the Tigers’ season likely coming to an end after the weekend given their 6-21 record in conference play this year, Auburn has nothing to lose during the rivalry series. Before chalking up any more tallies in the left-hand column, Vaughn explained why his team should respect Auburn at this point in the season.
“You learn really quick, how much this means to the state of Alabama,” Vaughn said during Thursday’s game. “And we knew this coming in and find a team we’re playing a team that, mathematically, their season ends here in a couple of days. And, you know, I think it goes one of two ways. We need to get the team that checks it in when that happens with a team that plays super free and goes out and plays good baseball, and I know Butch [Thompson] man, his team’s looking to check it in.
“So this is a big weekend for everybody in the states, a big weekend for our program.”
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