OMAHA, Neb. -- After five fruitless offensive innings in which Auburn ran itself out of a potential scoring chance, the Tigers unloaded on Stanford ace reliever Quinn Mathews for six runs in a span of two innings en route to a 6-2 win in an elimination game in Bracket 2 of the College World Series on Monday.
The win assured an SEC West team will be the Bracket 2 representative in the CWS finals, as Arkansas and Ole Miss are the other teams that remain alive.
Second baseman Cole Foster provided the big blow, a three-run double to the wall in left-center field to overcome a 2-1 deficit in the fifth inning off Mathews (9-2). Foster had a pair of doubles to go along with his game-high three RBI.
Auburn (43-21) gained a measure of revenge against Stanford that had been a long time coming. The Tigers eliminated Stanford after being booted from the 1967 and the 1997 College World Series by the Cardinal.
Stanford (47-17) joined CWS favorite Texas as the first two teams eliminated from the final eight.
Auburn, the No. 14 seed and 6 seed Texas A&M are the only remaining national seeds left in the tournament.
Trace Bright (5-4) allowed 2 runs on 5 hits and no walks, with 8 strikeouts to pick up the victory.
Freshman Blake Burkhalter worked the final 21/3 innings and picked up his 16th save.
Auburn, which had gone 0-2 in three of its five previous appearances in Omaha, avoided that fate. The Tigers are now 4-10 at the CWS.
Stanford struck for a run in the first two innings. Brock Jones singled and scored on Brett Barrera's double in the first, then Tommy Troy hit a one-out double and scored on Adam Crampton's two-out double in the second.
Auburn blew a scoring chance in the fifth when Brooks Carlson was thrown out at third base on Foster's bunt. Later in the inning, Foster was tagged in a rundown between third and home on an attempted double steal.
Bobby Peirce drew a bases-loaded walk off Mathews to force in Auburn's first run with one out in the fifth. With two outs, Foster launched a ball over the head of Jones in center field to clear the bases and give the Tigers the lead for good.
Auburn Coach Bruce Thompson said the base-running mistakes were a product of aggression.
"My job is to let a group of players and coaches leave with no regrets, just let it hang out," Thompson said. "What are we going to do, screw something up or make a mistake?
"I want them to attack as much as they can. ... And it's not always going to be perfect. But I just don't want to sit there for nine innings and just have at-bats.
"So anything that looks dumb it's always my fault anyway, so I might as well call it out and get them stirred up a little bit."