AUBURN | With school closed, the pandemic raging and sports shut down, Richard Fitts and his father grabbed their hammers and some wood and got to work.
They fashioned a wooden mound in their backyard, Fitts climed atop and started pitching.
“Some people just laid it down, and you know, went on about their business and trying to figure out a pandemic or what we’re going through—and no judgment there—I’m saying somebody like Richard Fitts, his brain was wired to, like, ‘How do I capture this moment here, this break? What can I figure out to continue to grow,’” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said.
Six months later, Fitts is back at Auburn and taking the mound for the first time in an intrasquad scrimmage. And he quickly wowed his coaches and teammates when his fastball touched 98 miles per hour.
“A perfect example of how somebody took full advantage of this time, was able to self-motivate, be creative, figure things out, and I don’t think there’s any doubt that he’s been working and put as much into the last six months as any player in our program,” Thompson said.
The right-handed Fitts is a strong candidate to fill one of the two open spots in Auburn’s weekend rotation after Tanner Burns and Bailey Horn were selected in the 2020 MLB Draft.
Jack Owen returns with a 3.76 career ERA, nine wins and 119 strikeouts. Closer turned starter Cody Greenhill is also a strong candidate to start on the weekend.
“He looks like he's in midseason form,” said Greenhill of Fitts. “We mess with him every day about getting tweeted out all the time, but he's showing up and making guys look silly up there. That's just a testament of his hard work over this break. He's a guy that is going to show up and give you everything he's got.”
Fitts will enter his third year at Auburn with plenty of experience including a 6-3 career record with a 4.88 ERA in 27 appearances including six starts. He’s struck out 63 in 75.2 innings. He earned wins during the 2019 Atlanta Regional and Chapel Hill Super Regional.
As a sophomore last season, he was 1-0 with a 2.77 ERA with 16 strikeouts in 13.0 innings.
“I mean, he was pitching in Omaha as a freshman. He was pitching at a Regional, at a Super Regional. He made appearances every step of the way on our journey to Omaha,” Thompsons said. “And, you know, he was pitching with what he had at the time. It’s pretty nice—you don’t see it every day—where somebody is jumping five, six, seven miles per hour in a short period of time in his college career. But he’s done it. And I don’t think there’s any magic dust or anything.”
The Tigers will continue fall drills through the end of November.
