Hunter Morris leads Auburn in 2009
FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
When the curtain rises on the 2009 Auburn baseball season, all eyes will be on the new man leading the program. A proven winner who has a coaching lineage that includes a nine-year stint as the most successful head coach in College of Charleston history, a playing and coaching career at ACC stalwart Clemson, a stop at Arizona State and an eight-year professional playing career, John Pawlowski has worked hard to become the head man of an elite college baseball program. While the journey to the big office is over, the work to get Auburn back to a national title contender has just begun for the 44-year-old coaching veteran.
“I’m excited to follow in the footsteps of the great programs that have been built here and the excellent players that have come through here,” Pawlowski said the day of his hiring in June of 2008. “There have been many teams that have come through here and won championships. We are going to move this program onward and upward and I am excited to be a part of it. Our goals are going to be more than just winning championships; winning the SEC championship and going to Omaha (site of the College World Series), which Auburn has been to four times. Our goals are going to be to recruit quality student-athletes, both on and off the field.”
Consistency in his staff is a key factor for Pawlowski and he feels very fortunate to have been able to bring both of his assistants from the College of Charleston with him to Auburn.
“I think anytime you change jobs or change programs, there is a transition period where you have to get your feet underneath you and get the right staff in place. One of the things that made this transition relatively smooth was that I was able to keep my staff intact, bringing Scott Foxhall and Matt Heath with me. Both guys know what our system is and know what we have in place. It has made the transition easier and helped the players get a better understanding of what we’re going to do. I’d say the process was a little quicker than I anticipated because everyone bought into it and knows what the expectations are the day we stepped foot on this campus.”
Foxhall is the pitching coach and recruiting guru for Pawlowski while Heath is the hitting coach. Both have already shown their brilliant minds for the game while working alongside Pawlowski. Foxhall has seen 36 players from the College of Charleston get drafted, coached three Southern Conference Players of the Year, four SoCon Pitchers of the Year and a Freshman of the Year while Heath helped the CofC hitters rank first in the nation in runs scored in 2008 (10.6) a year after leading the nation in batting average (.350), slugging percentage (.570) and runs scored per game (9.5).
OFFENSE / DEFENSE
The biggest challenge for Pawlowski and staff doesn’t seem to be the offensive side of the game as Auburn returns all three of the top hitters from last year’s team in sophomore first baseman Hunter Morris (.351/11HR/49 RBI), junior infielder Joseph Sanders (.348/6 HR/52 RBI) and sophomore outfielder Brian Fletcher (.34/10 HR/42 RBI). Morris spent last summer winning gold with the USA Baseball National Team, going a perfect 24-0, while Fletcher was invited to the USA National Team Trials and Sanders played close to an all-star level in the prestigious Cape Cod League.
“I think we are going to have to be a team that will create and manufacture runs. We will not be able to just sit there and hit the ball out of the ballpark. As much as we would like that to be our style and our plan, this league is so tough and we are going to have to get guys on and move them over. The biggest thing offensively is we are going to have to understand what the role is. I tell guys all the time, our offense is based on leaving your ego at the bat rack, going to the plate and doing whatever you can to move guys up, move guys over and get guys in and we are going to have to be a very unselfish offensive club,” Pawlowski said.
With Pawlowski a pitching coach by trade, having a solid backstop will play a pivotal role into how far this team can go this year. A senior, Ryan Jenkins (.233/1 HR/18 RBI) returns for a second consecutive season as the starting catcher after spending two years as a back-up to future supplemental round draft pick Josh Donaldson. Last year he was behind the plate for 38 starts after making just 20 in his first two seasons and he responded by throwing out 27 percent of runners and picking off another two.
“Ryan has been around the program for a while and he had a tremendous fall. Ryan is the first one that comes to mind when I think about guys that have made the most strides since we got here,” Pawlowski said. “Offensively and behind the plate, I think he is ready to come into his own this year. It’s great to have a guy back there that has been through the fire. He can lead our pitching staff and lead some of the guys that don’t have quite the experience or knowledge of how to go through and SEC season.”
Hunter Morris will anchor the offense and defense from the first base bag where he was the SEC Freshman of the Year, an All-SEC Second Team choice and a Freshman All-American. Hitting safely in 44 out of 54 games and stroking an extra-base hit in 24 games to finish with a .597 slugging percentage (15 doubles, two triples, 11 home runs), he was also perfect defensively, not committing an error in 410 chances.
“Hunter is a marked man in my opinion. He played on Team USA, he was a very high draft pick out of high school and he came in with a lot of very high accolades,” Pawlowski said of the Huntsville native. “The key to us offensively is the guys that surround Hunter and how well they perform.”
Another staple in the infield figures to be junior Joseph Sanders. The most versatile of any infielder, he has started at three out of the four infield positions with the lone exception coming at short. A sharp-hitting right-handed stick that also has some pop (42 career extra-base hits in 333 at bats), he has been a RBI machine over the past two seasons, driving in a team-best 52 runs in 2008 after finishing the 2007 season with 33 in just 36 starts for a total of 85, which was second just to 2008 MLB Draft Pick Mike Bianucci in that time period.
“Joe figures to get a lot of time at third base after having a really good summer at the Cape Cod League (.273/4 HR/17 RBI). The versatility of Joe works out for him. He can play third base, he can play second, and in a pinch he can play shortstop. He will solidify our infield.”
With the two corners anchored down by proven veterans it will be up to sophomore Justin Hargett (.278/1 HR/18 RBI) and freshman Casey McElroy to shore up the middle infield. Hargett had a solid freshman campaign, making 48 starts but struggled somewhat with the glove, making a team-high 14 errors in 190 chances, while McElroy, an All-State, All-Metro and All-County First Team selection out of Boone High School in Orlando, Fla., will be challenged to take over for the sure-handed Matt Hall at short.
“One of our biggest concerns going into the fall was trying to solve our infield position-wise. We are going to give Casey a chance to play at short. We just want him to make the routine plays and if he can he is going to have every opportunity to play out there. What he gives us offensively and those other things are a bonus,” Pawlowski said. “I like what Justin brings to the table out at second base. He can do a lot of things offensively. He’s tough, hard-nosed and did a real good job defensively for us during the fall.”
The outfield figures to be another area of offensive strength for the Tigers with sophomore Trent Mummey (.305/4 HR/23 RBI) patrolling center and a combination of sophomore Kevin Patterson (.255/5 HR/26 RBI) and senior Ben Jones (.282) battling for the job in right and sophomore Brian Fletcher (.324/10 HR/42 RBI) taking the lead in left.
Mummey was the leadoff hitter last season, a role he has a good chance of holding onto this season because of his speed (18 stolen bases in 23 attempts) and knack for getting on base (60 H, 24 BB, .398 OB%), reaching base safely in 41 of the 47 games he started last season.
Fletcher also has the edge in left after a spectacular freshman season that concluded with Freshman All-American honors from Louisville Slugger and a spot on the SEC All-Freshman Team. After a slow start to the year, Fletcher came on strong in the second half, delivering a .346 batting average in SEC games along with a team-best eight home runs and a team-leading .710 slugging percentage.
Patterson figures to be the front-runner in right after a solid freshman year was followed up by an All-Star summer in the Cape Cod League, where he hit .296 with 27 RBI and had a .454 slugging percentage (eight doubles, two triples, four home runs).
Seniors Jamie Drinkard and Jones will join converted catcher Tony Caldwell as the main options behind the starters in the outfield and also as the key bench players for Pawlowski’s squad. Jones is the most experienced of the trio, having played in 102 games over the past three seasons with starts in all three outfield spots.
PITCHING
The combination of Pawlowski and Foxhall and their pitching experience is where the biggest impact will be felt. Despite returning 72 percent of the innings off of last year’s pitching staff, the experience level is minimal for the 2009 squad after starters Grant Dayton (7-2, 3.89 ERA) and Paul Burnside (9-4, 4.15 ERA for his career) as the staff returns just 24 career wins from the remaining 10 returning pitchers, with four of those belonging to sophomore Cory Luckie (4-4, 4.38 ERA, 63.2 IP), who is already lost for the season.
“One of the things with our pitching staff is right now we are a little inexperienced,” Pawlowski said. “Some guys have talent but they haven’t been able to reach their potential yet.”
Dayton, a lefty, and Burnside, a righty, will battle it out for the title of staff ace in the early going if Burnside is able to recover from a lost junior season that saw him pitch in just four contests, which ironically gave Dayton the chance to become the breakout story of the 2008 season, resulting in a SEC All-Freshman Team selection and Freshman All-American honors from Collegiate Baseball. Dayton responded by leading the team in innings (81.0) and strikeouts (79) while maintaining superior control, evidenced by his 13 walks.
“Grant had a really good second half of the season last year,” Pawlowski said. “He is a fastball, slider, change-up guy and he has a real good feel for pitching. He can move the ball around, he’s composed and he has a lot of poise on the mound.”
Burnside, meanwhile, must prove to himself more than anyone else that he has the ability to return to the staff ace that he was in 2007 when he led the team in wins (seven) and had the lowest ERA of any of the starters (3.06 in 67.2 IP).
“I think Paul will be one of the biggest keys for our pitching staff success. He had the most innings this fall, so we know he’s healthy and he’s rebounded well from the injury,” Pawlowski noted. “His stuff has gotten better. The biggest thing is he’s making sure he continues to gain arm strength and continues to build up innings so he can increase his workload. Can he handle the rigors of the SEC? He’s proven it before now he just needs to go out and do it again.”
Angling for a spot at the final weekend starter spot will be red-shirt freshman right hander Jon Luke Jacobs while sophomore righty Chris O’Neil figures to be Pawlowski’s dark horse. Jacobs had a spectacular summer in the Valley League, going 4-1 with a 1.84 ERA with 72 strikeouts while O’Neil was 2-1 with a 2.92 ERA in 24.2 summer innings in the Clark Griffith League.
“Jon Luke Jacobs is coming off of a solid summer and is full of potential He has a very good out-pitch,” Pawlowski said. “Chris O’Neil has a chance to be a sleeper on the staff too.”
Another starter to keep an eye on is 6’5″ right hander Taylor Thompson (3-6, 6.28 ERA). A hard-throwing junior that was drafted in the 25th round by the Chicago White Sox last summer, he spurned the money to return to Auburn but he will have to overcome a lost fall after undergoing surgery following 61.2 innings as a sophomore.
“Taylor Thompson is coming off a little injury and is starting to throw right now. If we can get him healthy he is certainly a guy that can be right in the thick of things,” Pawlowski said.
With the starters lining up for Pawlowski, the attention will turn to a bullpen that will be breaking in a new closer but does have relief experience to rely on.
“Throughout the history of baseball you have to have guys that can pitch the seventh-, eighth- and ninth innings. Those three innings are so important,” Pawlowski noted of his bullpen. “We have guys like Michael Hurst, a sidewinder that throws from down under and provides a very different look. He has a lot of deception and has good movement off of his fastball. Scott Shuman has a ton of potential. He has as much potential as anyone on our pitching staff; we just have to harness that. He has shown flashes of brilliance and we just want him to be consistent.”
Hurst was a workhorse for Auburn last season, logging 39.2 innings out of the pen and posting a 4.76 ERA. Throwing from the side, he was a very successful match-up guy, finishing the year with a team-high six holds while not allowing any of the eight inherited runners to score, holding the first batter he faced to a .091 batting average.
After splitting time as both a starter and a reliever last season, Shuman looks to be back in the bullpen fulltime as a junior, a role he excelled at when given the chance as a freshman in 2007 when he was 4-1 with a 2.00 ERA with three saves, holding opponents to a .138 batting average.
The ninth inning will surely have a new face in it once again as gone is 2008 Auburn saves leader Bryan Woodall (0-2, 3.83 ERA, 11 saves), who left after being a 21st-round draft pick. The leading candidate to fill that role coming out of the fall is an unexpected one in Morris, who has not pitched since high school but went to the coaches to let them know of his willingness to do whatever it takes to get the team back to the SEC Tournament at Regions Park in Hoover, Ala., an event no one on the team has ever played in outside of hitting coach Matt Heath when he played at LSU.
“Hunter is a two-way player in my mind for us now. He didn’t pitch last year and he didn’t pitch a lot in high school, but you will see him late in games,” Pawlowski said. “He’s got arm strength and he’s pretty poised on the mound.
“The thing about our pitching staff is we don’t have a dominant number one guy and we don’t have a dominant closer. We have a lot of guys with a lot of different looks and a lot of different make-ups,” Pawlowski continued. “I think you are going to see our pitching staff, especially after we flip over from the starters to the middle guys and closers, is that we have to do a lot of matchups, a lot of left-on-left, looking at the numbers and trying to match-up guys. I think that is going to be one of the keys to our pitching staff this year.”
THE SCHEDULE
The schedule once again will feature a tough blend of non-conference series with the always grueling SEC slate. Pawlowski will have to deal with a familiar foe in Elon during the opening weekend before facing preseason top-10 opponent Florida State for a four-game, home-and-home series. The conference slate begins in Knoxville (March 13-15) and ends at home against Alabama (May 14-16) but will take Auburn to new parks at South Carolina (April 17-19) and LSU (April 24-26) on back-to-back weekends as well as the hostile environments at Mississippi State (April 3-5) and Kentucky (May 8-10). Those coming to Plainsman Park will be Arkansas (March 20-22), Vanderbilt (March 27-29) on back-to-back weekends in March, Florida (April 10-12) and Ole Miss (May 1-3).
“You look up and down the schedule and there are some really tough non-conference games. It’s not easy,” Pawlowski said. “I have had the opportunity to be in different parts of the country and you always look at what is the best conference and it is the SEC. Top to bottom, every weekend you have to be ready to play in the SEC.”
