AUBURN | Coming off being swept at No. 4 Ole Miss last weekend, Butch Thompson said there needed to be changes.
The first look at a big potential shift will come Tuesday night as Joseph Gonzalez gets his second-career start against South Alabama in Montgomery’s Riverwalk Stadium.
If it goes well, the freshman right-hander could be lining up for a road start at No. 2 Arkansas in 11 more days. Auburn hosts Kentucky this weekend.
“After this (UK) series, we run into a Thursday, Friday, Saturday series at Arkansas,” Thompson told Andy Burcham on the This Week in Auburn Baseball podcast. “The length of time Joseph goes (Tuesday) will determine whether he can come back and help us in the bullpen on Sunday.
“Is he earning the right to get a start and move to the weekend? That’ll be a lot on display tomorrow to try and figure out.”
In his first start at UAB March 9, Gonzalez held the Blazers to one run on one hit with seven strikeouts. He hasn’t been as effective in six relief appearances allowing four runs, three earned, in 6.1 innings with four strikeouts.
“This will be is second start. The first one was so good against UAB,” Thompson said. “We need pitching but we need a win too. We need a win and need to see if Joseph can do that in a start.”
The Rebels pounded AU’s starters in the final two games of the series. Mason Barnett allowed six runs, four earned, in 3.0 innings with two walks, a hit batter, wild pitch and balk. Trace Bright gave up seven runs in 1.1 innings on four hits and three walks.
The Tigers’ pitching staff has been beset by injuries. Cody Greenhill missed two weeks with a foot injury and still wasn’t 100 percent despite holding Ole Miss scoreless in 7.0 innings Friday. His fastball was topping out at 88 against the Rebels after previously hitting the low 90’s as he’s unable to fully push off his back foot.
Richard Fitts has thrown 2.0 innings in the last 18 days with the same foot injury.
Returning starter Jack Owen pitched for the first time Sunday after dislocating a finger during a preseason practice. Owen struggled allowing five runs in 0.1 innings.
Two of AU’s top left-handed relievers, Carson Skipper and Hayden Mullins, didn’t make the trip to Oxford due to injuries but could return this week.
“I hope this team will get put back together so we can see the best version of it,” said Thompson. “We’ve really, really grown in some areas and I think that’s offensively and defensively.
“At this level in the SEC, you have to be able to pitch at a high level. We need our juniors and guys that have experience to get out there and do their thing to have a chance to put our best foot forward.”
MORE CHANGES: Thompson outlined several other potential changes including letting pitching coach Tim Hudson call more pitches from the dugout. Brayton Brown, who hit a 3-run home run Sunday, and freshman Cole Foster, who went 1 for 4 as the DH Sunday, could both see more playing time.
“What can we do with the bottom half of our lineup,” asked Thompson. “It didn’t perform on an SEC weekend and we felt so good about our lineup. We struck out too much and didn’t walk enough.”
BAD COMBINATION: Auburn hitters struck out 36 times in three games at Ole Miss and the pitchers issued 20 walks. In the first two games, AU was 4 of 23 with runners on base.
SLOW START: Steven Williams has 155 hits, 26 home runs and 114 RBI in his Auburn career. He’s a proven player, but he’s off to a slow start his senior season batting .221 with three home runs and 15 RBI. He was 0 of 11 in Oxford with eight strikeouts.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Ryan Bliss earns the honors after hitting .400 with three home runs and four RBI in four games. He also had a perfect fielding percentage in 16 chances at shortstop. Rankin Woley hit .471 in four games while Tyler Miller hit .333 with three home runs and eight RBI.
PITCHER OF THE WEEK: Despite not having his best fastball, Greenhill struck out four and issued just one walk in 7.0 scoreless innings against Ole Miss. The senior right-harder threw 94 pitches and retired 15 consecutive batters from the last out of the first inning through the sixth. Freshman Carson Swilling also had two strong appearances out of the bullpen allowing one run in 5.1 innings.
NEXT UP: Tuesday night’s game against South Alabama at Riverwalk will be at 6 p.m. CT. There is no T.V. or streaming. Game times for the Kentucky series at Plainsman Park are 6 p.m. Friday, 6 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday. Friday and Sunday’s games will be on SECN+/ESPN+, and Saturday’s game will be on SEC Network.
