Auburn baseball’s road to Omaha in 2025 will run entirely through Plainsman Park.

It’s the first time the Tigers have been able to say that since 2003, and both now and 22 years ago, Auburn was named the No. 4 overall seed in the NCAA tournament. It means Auburn will host a regional and if its wins that regional, the Tigers will host a super regional as well.

Auburn has never hosted a super regional before, with the 2003 team falling in the regional round.

Six of the eight national seeds in the field are from the Southeastern Conference, along with each of the top four. Auburn played five of the top eight seeds in the regular season, going a combined 6-7 against Vanderbilt, Texas, LSU, Georgia and Oregon State.

That notch on the resume alone just about sums up how Auburn was able to lock up a top four seed, despite having less than 40 wins.

“I think one of the biggest things we’ve done, and I give Greg Drye a lot of credit on our staff, is researching and revamping our scheduling,” head coach Butch Thompson said following the selection show. “I think the number one strength of schedule has held serve.”

As Thompson mentioned, Auburn went into Selection Monday with the No. 1 strength of schedule, helping give the Tigers the No. 3 RPI. That helped put Auburn over teams with better overall records such as North Carolina, Oregon State and LSU, who all earned top eight seeds, but behind Auburn.

Nonconference wins over teams like Oregon State and Georgia Tech (twice) along with going 17-13 in the SEC — a league that earned 13 tournament bids — all but sealed a spot in the top eight for the Tigers.

Having played those games, not only did it help Auburn’s resume, but it means the path ahead isn’t much harder than the one the team has already been down.

“It’s not like we’re going to go play the Braves tomorrow,” star outfielder Ike Irish said. “It doesn’t get harder. Then it comes down to not beating yourself. If we don’t beat ourselves, we’re in a really good spot.”

Auburn’s regional includes two-seed NC State, three-seed Stetson and four-seed Central Connecticut State, and the Tigers will face Central Connecticut State in their regional opener Friday night at 6 p.m.

If Auburn’s wins the region, it will face the winner of the Conway regional, hosted by Coastal Carolina, in the super regionals. Alongside Coastal Carolina, the Conway regional consists of Florida, East Carolina and Fairfield.

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m