As the temperatures on the Plains reach a low, things are starting to warm up for the 2010 Auburn Baseball season.

February 19th the Tigers will begin their second season under Head Coach John Pawlowski’s tutelage by hosting SE Missouri State for a three-game series.

The Tigers finished last season on a high note beating the Crimson Tide team that came to Plainsman Park as a projected first seed to the NCAA Tournament. After back to back loses, the Crimson Tide claimed a single victory of the series and limped back to Tuscaloosa as a fourth seed. Despite the 31 win first season, Head Coach Pawlowski wasted no time in declaring the Tigers’ goal for this season: a postseason NCAA appearance.

“It’s huge for this university and for this baseball program,” said infielder Hunter Morris. “The people at Auburn deserve a lot more than what we’ve given them.

We’ve got such good chemistry, and not only do we want to do it for Auburn University and we want to do it for this program, we want to do it for us as a family.”

Pawlowski was optimistic about the progress his club has made through his first offseason on the plains.

“It’s a little different feeling around the clubhouse this year in a sense that the guys are over the process of a new coach and a new system,” Pawlowski said. “They understand what the expectations are.”

Pawlowski said that when it comes to specific positions this year, most of them are figured out.

The position of catcher will be split between Ryan Jenkins and Tony Caldwell.

“We’ll probably split them some on the weekend,” Pawlowski said. “If they have a left-handed pitcher going, whoever catches, we might DH the other one. I think until the dust settles, we’ll probably split both of them.”

Pawlowski added that Caldwell did a great job filling in last year.

“We’re very fortunate that we’ve got two quality, experienced catchers that’ll be behind the plate this year,” he said.

Three players, junior Wes Gilmer and sophomores Dan Gamache and Creede Simpson, will be fighting it out for the third base position. Pawlowski added that Gamache is the top choice at the moment.

“I believe that Creede played shortstop and can play third base, Pawlowski said. “He’s very athletic, but he’ll probably start for us in right field."

Pitching was an area that needed improvement last season as lack of depth limited options for much of the season.

Luke Jacobs and Grant Dayton are expected to return to the starting lineup as well as closer Austin Hubbard, who led the league in saves last year. The bullpen looks to get some immediate help through the addition of junior college pitchers Stephen Kohlscheen from Cowley County and Cole Nelson from Des Moines Area Community College.

Kohlscheen is a right handed pitcher with a tremendous fastball who passed on a 30th round draft choice to enter SEC play and improve his stock.

Kohlscheen spent the past two seasons at Cowley County where he had a 3.86 ERA with 73 strikeouts against 27 walks last season.

Nelson is a powerful left hander who signed with Auburn after posting a 5-0 record in 2008, with a 3.05 era in 10 appearances, for the Bears and is expected to be the third starter to start the season.

Another area where the Tigers look to improve is consistency while hitting. Last season, under Matt Heath’s guidance, the Tigers posted a school record 102 home runs lead by the dynamic duo of Brian Fletcher and Hunter Morris, who combined for 29 home runs last season.

Morris took full advantage of this off season by dropping almost 30 pounds and relieving himself of back pains that plagued him for much of last season. Morris said he feels much healthier and he has already noticed increased speed and mobility while playing in the field without a loss of hitting efficiency.
Morris added that he’s always known that slimming down would help his game.

“I knew it would since I’ve been here,” he said. “It finally clicked with me after I had the back problems last year. Not only for me as I look to make baseball a career for a long time, personal health is obviously important; but for me to be able to contribute to this team how I’d like to, it was really, really important. I saw no other choice but to do that.”

While the Tigers’ bats sent 102 balls soaring out of parks last season, they also struck out a lot. Morris said that the team has handled batting with a more mature approach this season.

“We try to be very professional about the way we go about our work as an offense,” Morris said. “It’s not all about just putting up two, three, four run innings, and trying to compile those all the time by hitting home runs.”

However, because of an injury, the Tigers will begin season play without returning starter Trent Mummey.

“It’s a tough situation,” Pawlowski said. “We had a scrimmage last Saturday and Trent went for a ball. It was one of those unfortunate things where his foot got caught underneath him. It looks like he could be out, I don’t know, we are hearing 4-6 weeks for the first part of the season.”

Pawlowski added that expectations for the Auburn ball club is as high as they have ever been.

“We have high expectations and we hold ourselves in high esteem in the clubhouse, on the field, and in the classroom,” he said. “We’re excited. February 19, in my mind, can’t get here soon enough. These guys are anxious and ready to play.”

The NCAA Tournament is the goal and consistency will be the first step for the Tigers to get there. Auburn will hope to have any kinks worked out and their bats hot when they begin SEC play at Georgia on March 19th before they host their first SEC home series against South Carolina on March 26th.