The 2017 Auburn Baseball team held their second open-scrimmage of the season on Saturday afternoon at Plainsman Park.
The exhibition featured five shortened innings in which pitchers displayed speed and versatility, hitters exhibited power and the defense presented a multitude of athletic, hustle plays, pleasing second-year head coach Butch Thompson.
“We’re trying to play fast and attack everything,” Thompson said. “I actually asked the players to name their attack plays. We had a pitcher that attacked the ball, we had a foul ball where Josh Anthony ran all the way from third base and slid into the wall behind home plate. Those are little things, but I like how we’re playing. I thought we really pushed it on the bases. When our guys get thrown out by stealing a base, we allow them to go back, embracing every bit of it.
“I thought we did an especially good job with our defense, with our communication and with our at-bats. We leave today knowing that one thing we have to keep growing is for pitchers to shove the ball in the strike zone and attack it a little bit more.”
Freshman Davis Daniel started the afternoon for the Tigers and threw twelve pitches in the first inning, all fastballs. Daniel made two quick-thinking plays in the first, both tosses to first base, outing outfielders Jonah Todd and Bo Decker. Succeeding Daniel on the mound was 6 foot 7 senior Gabe Kolobosits. Kolobosits endured improved hitting from the Tigers, as outfielder Jeremy Johnson and infielder Luke Jarvis both rounded home in the second.
Redshirt-junior infielder Dylan Ingram placed his brand on the contest with a pair of grounders between first and second base. Both hits resulted in singles. Sophomore catcher Mike Rojas continued his efficient play from the team’s first scrimmage on Friday with a fair deep shot into left field that brought home Johnson. Jarvis turned in the most notable offensive effort of the day, smacking a fastball from Kolobosits just under the scoreboard for a solo triple.
The sequences from infielder Josh Anthony, alluded to by coach Thompson, brought the few Hitchcock Field attendees to their feet. Anthony slid for a short foul ball in the fourth inning. The junior missed, slamming into the wall behind home plate. Anthony redeemed himself with an athletic slide-and-throw to first, ending the fourth inning.
Amidst the prominent demonstrations of efficiency for Auburn, the Tigers also curved several errors and general mishaps. Twice a batter was struck by a pitch and twice in the outfield, apparent confusion led to errors on the execution of a throw to second or first.
“Routinely, I think most of the guys made a lot of good plays,” Thompson said. “The defense was pretty clean. The more that the pitcher can shove the ball in the strike zone and understand that the game is nine versus one, he’ll realize you’ve got all these guys behind you ready to make plays. I think we’ll get in better preparation steps and we’ll make better plays and start to throw some strikes. You don’t want to keep your guys out there for fifteen minutes for half an inning of play.”
The Tigers still find themselves recovering from the dismissal of Kyler Deese. Deese started 40 of 44 games last season for the Tigers in the infield. The would-be senior was arrested on January 12th for public intoxication. Four days later, the team announced Deese’s dismissal.
“A team always incurs a bunch of challenges during a season,” Thompson said. “It could be personnel, it could be losing in the last inning, or it could be injury. We’re rallying around all of those things.
“I’ve never coached in 25 years where there wasn’t challenges along the way for a bunch of reasons. This is another opportunity for us to move forward and to care about everybody, whether they’re here or there. The biggest thing is for us to keep pressing forward. That won’t be the biggest or the last challenge for us this year and we’ve got to be ready for all of them.”
Auburn enters its second season of the Butch Thompson era after a second-to-last place finish the SEC a season ago. The 2016 Tigers recorded a 23-33 record overall and tallied only 3 wins on the road for the entire season.
The Tigers start their 2017 campaign with 21 straight home games before playing Georgia Tech on the road on March 21st. Game one of Auburn’s first 2017 series is Friday, February 17th at Plainsman Park against George Washington. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m. CST, broadcasted on the SEC Network+.
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