AUBURN | Richard Fitts went the extra mile preparing for the 2021 season.
During the dark days of the COVID-19 pandemic last spring and summer when he was at home having to take all of his classes remotely, Fitts and his father built a wooden mound in his backyard and they started throwing.
Fitts showed up for fall practice in great shape, blowing hitters away with a fastball that was topping out at 98 miles per hour. He was getting written up by national baseball writers as a potential first round pick.
He had conquered the pandemic and now he was ready to assault college baseball.
Unfortunately, he suffered an injury to his right foot early into his junior season, the exact same injury as Cody Greenhill, and it’s had a major affect on both players’ production.
“It’s been very frustrating,” Fitts said. “There’s a lot of outings where I thought I was really prepared for it and didn’t have the outing that I wanted to. Then I was trying to figure out something new moving forward. It’s really just been a roller coaster of emotions.
“I’m just really proud to have the teammates that I do encouraging me all the time.”
That encouragement and Fitts’ drive kept him working and tinkering throughout the last couple of months, trying to work around an injury that’s not fully healed and find a way to start getting outs.
It finally paid off Saturday with Fitts’ best outing of the season. With Auburn looking to avoid a home sweep from LSU, Fitts started and held the visiting Tigers to a run one on one hit in 6.0 innings with seven strikeouts and just two walks.
His foot started bothering him in the fifth inning but he was able to go back for the sixth and pitch around a walk and an error to keep LSU off the board.
“It’s one of my proudest moments as a coach with a player to see what he’s been through and be able to have a day like that against a team that was hard to deal with as the weekend went on with that offense. I’m really proud of Richard Fitts today,” said Auburn coach Butch Thompson.
Fitts was hitting 94 early in Saturday’s game, which is an improvement for this season but not the high 90s heat he was throwing earlier in the year. The injury to his push-off foot has kept him from being able to deliver his best fastballs.
He’s also made an adjustment to feature his slider more than his curve, which made a big difference against LSU.
“To know behind the scenes how much he’s persevered. How much he’s been through. How much injury he’s pushed through,” said Thompson. “How he’s pitching on a completely different side of the rubber. How we made him throw to hitters on Tuesday with our team standing around and hitters taking swings against him. We’re pressing, fighting, making him do things that he’s uncomfortable with.
“We just turned ourselves inside out and he’s just an amazing young man. Then the frustrating piece is for him not to be setup and have done this for us seven, eight, nine, 10 times this year is really frustrating.”
Auburn plays Samford Wednesday night at 6 p.m. CT at the Hoover Met, the site of the upcoming SEC Tournament. AU freshman right-hander Jack Sokol (1-0, 0.00) will face senior left-hander Hamp Skinner (3-1, 6.14). The Tigers return to SEC play next weekend with a three-game series against Texas A&M at Plainsman Park beginning Friday night at 6 p.m.
