Newcomers impress

AUBURN | It’s early. Just a couple of weeks into Auburn’s fall practice, but several standouts are starting to emerge.

That’s especially true in the outfield, which returns two veterans in Kason Howell and Bobby Peirce, and added a key transfer in Justin Kirby.

There’s depth there also with talented freshman Chris Stanfield, sophomore Mike Bello and senior Josh Hall, who is returning from an injury.

“This is probably the best outfield depth we’ve had,” said AU coach Butch Thompson. “Bobby Peirce is getting jumps on the ball and he’s so serious. His at-bats are as good as any I’ve seen in a while.”

Thompson said before the start of practice that Kirby might possess the most power on the team. The Kent State transfer showed plenty of it during Wednesday’s intrasquad, belting a home run off the top of the player performance center in right field and following that up a couple of innings later with a blast over the green monster in left.

“We’re alternating days with (Peirce and Kirby) because they’re both the most comfortable in right. But probably both are in the lineup as of today,” Thompson said.

Another newcomer off to a hot start is catcher Ike Irish, who is behind a couple of veterans in Nate LaRue and Ryan Dyal. That could mean a position switch for the freshman at some point this fall.

“Ike Irish is just having amazing at-bats. He’s done a great job,” said Thompson. “Two weeks of at-bats, I’m not sure we’ve got five other hitters better than him. To be able to step into the box and have authority and let the ball travel and use the whole field. If that’s the case, you’ve got to find him a spot.”

The pitching staff is going to take more time to come together behind Joseph Gonzalez, who is limited this fall after pitching for Team USA this summer.

“The challenge is trying to overcome five pitchers drafted in the top 12 rounds,” said Thompson. “The positive is I don’t think we’ve lost arm talent. The negative is that we can definitely tell that we’ve loss arm experience.

“So that has our undivided attention all day, every day.”

Thompson could have a couple of veterans join Gonzalez in the starting rotation. Tommy Sheehan, who transferred from Notre Dame last year, is back for his sixth season.

Sophomore Chase Allsup is converting from a reliever to starter this fall.

"We’re trying to take Chase from one- to two-inning appearances and trying to create a starter out of him this fall. At least build his pitch cont, add to his innings and see,” said Thompson.

The Tigers must replace Carson Skipper and Blake Burkhalter in the backend of their bullpen and several players have stepped up in these areas over the first two weeks.

Junior college transfer Tanner Bauman and Notre Dame/TCU transfer Tommy Vail give Auburn a couple of crafty left-handers that could serve in set-up roles.

“Bauman went out there with a really good changeup the other day. We’ve got more left-handed options,” said Thompson. “Vail played with Sheehan at Notre Dame. He’s got great experience, a good breaking ball and can kind of play that role of Skipper. We need to keep seeing it more.”

Chase Isbell, who struck out 23 batters in 18.2 innings as a true freshman last season, is ready to step in for Burkhalter.

“Isbell has enough stuff to do it and he really is interested in being our closer,” said Thompson.

Auburn will host two exhibition games this fall — Louisiana Tech Oct. 15 and Alabama Oct. 28.