Auburn baseball looking to veterans Foster, Howell to lead this fall
Turnover is inevitable in college sports, especially smaller roster sports like basketball and baseball, but it feels like Auburn may have lost a lot of talent in the offseason - eight players were drafted into MLB last season, including three of your four starting infielders and three of your top four starting pitchers.
Auburn head coach Butch Thompson isn't necessarily worried about the challenge of having to find replacements for eight drafted players, because of the massive amount of talented newcomers (24) joining the returning veterans, but also because he brings back his three key up-the-middle defenders at catcher, shortstop, and centerfield.
Kason Howell, Auburn's centerfielder who has started 113 consecutive games in center, said the decision to return for his final season was an easy one, and came rather quick. "I didn't mull over it too long. Coach Thompson told me to take a couple weeks, and go to the beach or whatever. And so I did that for a couple of weeks. I had another year or eligibility, and I had a little bit left on my degree and I just thought in my mind 'I love this program so much. I really want to be a part of the first team that wins the national championship here.' I couldn't live with myself if I didn't have a chance to be a part of that."
Thompson was more than happy to have Howell back on his horse in centerfield. "If I got to coach at this level for 20 more years, I would be happy if Kason Howell was a centerfielder on that ball club. We're gonna get one more year our of him, and he's done an amazing job."
Howell acknowledged that there's areas he's still working to improve for this final season. "Being more consistent at the plate - that's kind of been my main issue in my four years. My main (personal) goal this year is to not have a really good weekend and then drop off; just trying to be more consistent as a hitter."
But Howell's excited for the offensive makeup of the roster, especially what transfer outfielder Justin Kirby brings to the lineup: "A lot of power. *laughs* A LOT of power. He's got some pop, and he's a great hitter; he's very mature, very professional about how he goes about things. Great addition to the team with the experience that he brings. Good leader, good communicator, fun, (good) presence in the locker room. We're all glad he chose to come to Auburn because he's a very good player."
Returning switch-hitter Cole Foster, following in the footsteps of Ryan Bliss and Brody Moore in moving from 2B to SS, is excited about the transition back to the infield leadership position of shortstop and having a chance to lead in the same fashion that they did. "Coming here as a freshman, Ryan Bliss took me under his wing. I learned a lot from him - he taught me everything I needed to know as a freshman coming into an SEC program. Last year played with Brody, learned a lot from Brody. He's a phenomenal shortstop, phenomenal teammate, awesome guy. And that's the route I'm taking."
He went on to explain that Moore and Bliss told him that being the leader was his responsibility now, and something he plans to attack. "Once Brody and Bliss left, they told me 'it's your team. Take someone under your wing, teach them what we taught you.' And so that's a thankful moment for me, hearing everything that they told me."
Foster's gotten a lot of help from assistant coach Karl Nonemaker, who coaches the infielders, in readjusting to shortstop. "Nonnie has helped me with transitioning back to shortstop, because I haven't played it in two years, basically, but I'm excited. Looking forward to getting back out there."
Having the success that Foster had last season, both offensively (.267/.395/.488, 2nd in RBIs with 47 and 3rd in home runs with 9) and defensively (27 double plays turned), was significant for Foster's mindset entering this year. "It was a huge deal, because my freshman year I had a hard time on the mental side of things, coming here and sitting on the bench a lot and (shagging) foul balls. It definitely was huge last year, playing with Sonny (DiChiara), Rambo (Blake Rambusch) and all those guys that helped me up from my freshman year. It was great, (the) feeling to have those guys on my side and lift me up, gave me confidence to play the game again."
Foster discussed some of the infield options, specifically talking up Bryson Ware at third base as someone to watch this fall. "I think Bryson looks really good at third base. He's got a big body, amazing stature, and he looks really good. Really comfortable, especially coming (back) from the outfield - he'd been a shortstop his whole life and so he obviously knew how to play it. I think he looks really good, he looks really comfortable. He's talking a lot, and communicating."
For second base, Foster specifically mentioned Mason Land, Brody Moss, and newcomer Caden Green among the four guys that were going to "compete their butts off" for that spot.
"This fall, the next five weeks should be really interesting."
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