AUBURN | Auburn used 15 pitchers the entirety of last season. Four games into 2020, the Tigers have already used 14 and a 15th, freshman Trace Bright, is scheduled to start Tuesday’s game against Oakland.
Auburn came into the season with the most pitching depth of the Butch Thompson era and first-year pitching coach Tim Hudson is already taking full advantage.
“Tim has connected in a short period of time,” Thompson said. “I think it’s really hard coming in January—anywhere, whatever your role may be—but he’s pretty comfortable in the dugout. He’s been there a long time. He’s made a good connection with guys. I like the rhythm with which he works, where he’s direct. He doesn’t have to be loud to command attention.
“Just a lot of things this first weekend where you play out and see how he handles it, how he communicates to the bullpen, when to take them in and when to take them out—it was good. There’ll be some closer games that’ll challenge that a little bit more and we’ll learn something every game we play this year. But he looked like a natural to me is what I’d report from the first weekend.”
Bailey Horn, Brooks Fuller and Hayden Mullins combined to pitch a 7-inning shutout in Sunday’s 14-0 win, which completed a four-game sweep over Illinois-Chicago. Horn struck out seven in 4.0 innings to pick up the win while Fuller threw 2.0 scoreless innings and Mullins 1.0. The game ended after seven innings due to UIC’s travel needs.
Auburn’s four starters this weekend — Tanner Burns, Jack Owen, Richard Fitts and Horn — combined to go 4-0 with a 1.89 ERA and 29 strikeouts in 19.0 innings. The entire staff finished the weekend with a 1.85 ERA and 49 strikeouts in 34.0 innings.
“Great, great coach,” Horn said. “Obviously from the experience he’s had, and then just passing information down to us and being super patient and understanding with us and whatever you guys need, everyone is not the same so he does a great job with that."
Hudson, a consensus All-American and SEC Player of the Year at Auburn in 1997, went on to play 17 years in Major League Baseball with the Oakland Athletics, Atlanta Braves and San Francisco Giants, winning a World Series with the Giants in 2014. He was a four-time All-Star and National League Comeback Player of the Year in 2010.
He originally re-joined AU’s baseball program as a student assistant for the 2020 season before Steve Smith accepted the head coaching position at Tennessee Tech in January, leaving the pitching coach position open.
“I just enjoy being able to help out the boys, and try to get them better both on and off the field,” Hudson said. “I’ve always been a big supporter of Auburn baseball and everything that we’ve had going on here since I left in 1997. I’m just thrilled to death at the direction that Butch has taken the program, and to have that chance to come be a part of it.
“Obviously, this is a new thing for me, a new chapter in my life. I can’t say I have a lot of experience as a pitching coach, but I know my way around the mound a little bit, and it’s been fun to work with those boys in the bullpen, and try to show them some things that I’ve learned over the years.”
Only four pitchers on AU’s roster including Bright didn’t pitch this weekend, but Thompson expects Garrett Wade and Ramsey David to contribute as early as Tuesday. Peyton Glavine will start throwing bullpens this week as he returns from a minor injury.
"We were cut a little short with the curfew here today. A couple more guys to hopefully get out there for the first time," said Thompson of Wade and David. "That’s what I like about what Tim did. He’s thrown them in the one-inning-type outings where you’ve got a sixth, seventh and eighth, and that makes all those guys available to come back for the midweek. I think that’s a positive."
The Tigers also had a huge weekend at the plate batting .368 with 20 extra-base hits, 19 walks and 44 runs scored. The 11 runs they scored in the fourth inning of Sunday’s game is the most since scoring 13 in the first inning of game three of the 2019 Chapel Hill Super Regional. John Samuel Shenker and Garrett Farquhar both had two hits for AU Sunday with Farquhar driving in four.
First pitch for the Oakland game Tuesday is scheduled for 5 p.m. CT.
