Auburn Baseball Adds New Hitting Coach From Top Program

Auburn baseball was quick to find a replacement for associate head coach and hitting coach Gabe Gross, and the Tigers made a home run hire.

Former Georgia assistant Nick Ammirati was hired on Tuesday as Auburn’s next hitting coach, coming from a program that made its first College World Series in 18 seasons. He will join head coach Butch Thompson’s staff after playing under him as a player at Mississippi State.

A rising star in our sport. ⭐️

Auburn Family, help us welcome @Coach_Ammo17 to The Plains!

📰 » https://t.co/DI8qbsgUw2 #WarEagle pic.twitter.com/kUeuuvMfW3
— Auburn Baseball (@AuburnBaseball) July 14, 2026

“This is an incredible opportunity to join a program with arguably more young talent than anyone in the country and help build on the momentum it has created the last several years,” Ammirati said in a statement.

He spent the last two seasons with the Bulldogs, leading the country in home runs in both seasons, with 144 and 179, respectively. Both of those numbers were also program records for Georgia as the offense hit a collective .304 average.

Georgia catcher Daniel Jackson won the Golden Spikes, Dick Howser Trophy, Buster Posey and Bobby Bragan Slugger of the Year awards while under Ammirati, being the best slugger in the entire country in 2026. The new Auburn hitting coach will look to do that with Auburn hitter Chase Fralick, who the team played behind throughout the NCAA Tournament.

Before the Bulldogs, Ammirati had the same role with Kentucky from 2022-24, helping the team make its first College World Series in 2024. Once again, the trend of being a top offensive team in program history continued, being top five in runs scored, home runs and RBIs in that season.

Ammirati also has experience from Southern Miss and Northwestern State at the Division I level.

Auburn gets a hitting coach that helped lead programs to Omaha twice in the last three seasons, being a part of the team that won the SEC Championship, two regular season and one tournament title, the last three seasons. He’s had nine hitters who have been given top 10 round draft picks of the MLB Draft in the last three events.

Ammirati also brought in five straight top-10 transfer portal classes, having the No. 1-ranked class at Georgia a season ago.

“For me personally, I’m excited to reunite with a former student-athlete, and I believe our players and program are going to be very excited to have Ammo join the Auburn Family,” Thompson said.

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