As the calendar moves closer to spring and the hope of warm weather begins, the smell of fresh hot dogs along with the cracking sound of aluminum bats lets fans know that it's that time of year again.
The Auburn University Baseball team will be taking the field for the first time this season with a three game series against Southeastern Missouri starting Friday at 3p.m.
The Tigers look to improve from a 3125 overall record and 11-19 SEC record last year that left them just short of making the SEC and NCAA tournament for the first time since 2003. "We are certainly excited about the upcoming 2010 season," said head coach John Pawlowski. "These guys have worked extremely hard. I like the way our team has gone about their work ethic." Pawlowski is getting ready to serve his second year as Auburn's head coach and hopes to see the team gain stability with experience.
"It's a little different feeling around the clubhouse this year in a sense that the guys are over the process of a new coach and a new system," Pawlowski said.
"They understand what our expectations are. We have a lot of leaders who are back, offensively, from our team last year, which I think is going to be a huge asset to our team." The offense will be led by junior infielder Hunter Morris.
"We try to be very professional about the way we go about our work as an offense," Morris said. "It's not all about just putting up two, three, four run innings and trying to compile those all the time by hitting home runs. It's about getting guys on base, bunting guys over, hitting line drives and trying to really boost that on-base percentage, which is going to be really important in the long run."
Morris was named a preseason First Team All-American by Baseball America.
Morris has a career batting average of .318 with 23 home runs and 82 runs batted in after playing in 104 games for the Tigers.
"It's huge for this University and for this baseball program (to be successful)," Morris said. "The people at Auburn deserve a lot more than what we've given them. We've got such good chemistry, and not only do we want to do it for Auburn University and we want to do it for this program, we want to do it for us as a family."
Auburn's first 11 games will be at home at Plainsman Park.
March 9 Auburn travels to Montgomery to play Alabama in the Capitol City Classic.
Auburn came from behind in the top of the 9th last year to win the game 8-7 in the inaugural Classic.
The Tigers will have another difficult road to the SEC tournament this year as six SEC teams were voted into Rivals. com preseason Top 25.
As for its out of conference schedule, the team will be traveling to Tempe, Ariz., for a three game series against No. 9 Arizona State starting March 12. "It's always fun when you're playing catch and you've got someone out there watching you practice," said Stephen Kohlscheen, a junior college transfer. "That tells you it means a lot to people and the community. Obviously, I haven't been in an SEC game yet, but I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to playing in front of a lot people."
The great thing about the beginning of every season is teams are 0-0, and everyone thinks they have a chance of being good.
Auburn hopes this is the year all its hard work is rewarded.
"We know and we talk about it; we haven't been to the (SEC) Tournament," Pawlowski said. "We want to change that and get this program where it needs to be. This is a big year for these guys, obviously, and a big year for our program."
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