Auburn baseball took the field to conduct its first full practice of the Butch Thompson era on Friday, where the squad took the afternoon to shake off some rust in the form of an intersquad, 4-inning, scrimmage.
After Sunny Golloway was fired in the fall, Thompson, the former Mississippi State pitching coach, returned to the Plains for the second time in his coaching career.
The late coaching change has made for a unique situation for the Tigers heading into the spring. Friday was the first full practice the Tigers have held per NCAA regulations. Up until today’s scrimmage they have only been able to meet in four-person groups.
Thompson was very clear that he is using this time to evaluate the talent on the team and let the players showcase their style of play. This time will be as much a learning process for him as it is for the players.
“[We’re] trying to see who they are, still because there is a difference in practicing four players at a time and getting them out and actually opening up their game," Thompson said. "We will give them some freedom in what pitches they’re selecting and what they are doing. At the same time we’re trying to gain information by stepping back and let them play a little bit, we’re just trying to see how they navigate their way through [the game].”
Thompson has made a point to not take stats during these first scrimmages because he doesn't want to be influenced by the numbers, rather, what his eyes are seeing on the field. This strategy has also proven to take a lot of stress off the players as they focus on process and not result.
“This is as simple as it can be” said junior infielder Niko Buentello. "(To) make it easy on (ourselves).”
On this first day of scrimmages the team was excited to finally work as a team and ready to get into the swing of the season.
“It was a blast to finally get out here and show off our skill.” Buentello said. “It helps a lot to get our here, four at a time, knock off some rust after sitting for Christmas break, that month off.”
Thompson specified that seniority will be the key to this teams success as they move through the season.
"Anfernee Grier was so locked in today and so mature," Thompson said. "We are going to count on that. We're going to need Blake Logan, Cody Nulph, and Melvin Gray in the middle infield, Grier in center field, and Jordan Ebert. We are counting on them to be coaches also, they know everything that's going on but just in how they handle practice. We had a lot of maturity on the field today."
The Tigers will be scrimmaging at 1 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday, both of which are open to the public. They open the season on Feb. 19 against Sacramento State.
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