Lee-Scott Baseball Nearing Playoff Form Tigers Ink Transfer Guard Jones

PHOTO BY JERRY BALLAS FOR THE OBSERVER

BY NOAH GRIFFITH FOR THE OBSERVER

AUBURN —

Lee-Scott baseball is 18-8, and it has outscored opponents 81-8 during a torrid past week with a sweep of Southern Prep and a win apiece over Sherwood and Valiant Cross.

Assistant coach Jacob Ozment said towards the beginning of the season that his team needs to see themselves have success, and they’ve done a lot of that as of late, particularly on the offensive end. The Warriors, as of the end of last week, had a team batting average of .282 with a .460 OBP.

According to Ozment, getting a healthy Hutch Sprayberry back in the lineup has been a factor in the offensive

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FROM B1 fans, Chicago White Sox fans, many of Thomas’ former teammates and coaches, as well as his family and more.

“The Big Hurt” is a nickname Thomas is often referred to by, meaning that Thomas caused a lot of pain to those he played against because he was so gifted on the baseball field. There was no hurt going around on Saturday, quite the opposite in fact, as people gathered to celebrate the occasion.

There was no shortage of stories about Thomas to go around during the ceremony that proceeded the unveiling. Many notable representatives of Auburn University, such as president Dr. Chris Roberts, head baseball coach Butch Thompson and more shared the impact that Thomas has had on them.

Roberts talked about scraping change together to take a train into Chicago to watch Thomas play for the White Sox during his time as a Ph.D. student at the University of Notre Dame.

"Frank Thomas was the standard bearer for improvement, but they’ve also benefitted from playing with the order and maximizing their efficiency based on matchups.

“[Our lineup] is always going to be situational based on how we want to pitch and catch,” Ozment explained. “With Lane (Eddins) being able to pitch and catch, Kade (Hudson) pitching and catching, Jake (Cummings) being able to pitch and catch and Sam (Jackson) doing both as well. It all depends on how [head coach Tim Hudson] wants to attack the series and set up our defense, but we’re starting to settle into some spots as the season wraps up.

“We’re just taking it a game at a time and get as many game reps with as many guys as possible.” me when it came to Auburn University," Roberts said. "You [Thomas] were the person who put in my mind that Auburn stood for excellence."

Auburn athletics director John Cohen, who played against Thomas at Mississippi State, listed some of Thomas’ accolades and compared them to other achievements people have made.

"We got to witness a generational level of excellence that rarely exists in college athletics," Cohen said, including that Thomas is one of four players in MLB history to reach 500 home runs, 1,600 walks and post a .300 batting average. "Only 12 people have ever walked on the moon. In my opinion, in so many ways, Frank, you're our Neil Armstrong. Thank you for going to the moon and thank you for taking Auburn University with you."

Hal Baird, a legendary Auburn baseball coach who led the program during Thomas’s time, made some remarks about how special Thomas was to the team.

"His competitive spirit and his will to win," Baird cited as characteristics that set Thomas

CONTRIBUTED BY AU ATHLETICS from the free throw line and 43.4% from the field.

However, the week leading up to the offensive explosion, Lee-Scott struggled to produce against Montgomery’s MaconEast. The Warriors dropped two of three with the Knights while only scoring three runs on six hits.

Although Auburn High transfers Eddins and Garrett West threw strong, complete-game starts to begin the series, the offense couldn’t dig itself out of a slump to help their starters out. In game three, the combination of Jack McKay, Pearson Little, Harrison Short and Hudson combined to go seven innings with nine strikeouts, allowing four earned runs. But again, the Warriors' only run came from West driving home freshman

See LSA, page B5 apart. "Winning was very important to him and when he was at Auburn, we won. His mind worked in a way like no young baseball player I had ever seen."

Thompson mentioned how beneficial it is to have a player like Thomas for the current Auburn baseball players on the team to look up to.

"To get to a day like this marks exponential growth and I know the best is yet to come," Thompson said. "Our players, through their highest of highs of Omaha and through their grind of tough days, have examples. Frank, you're another example for us all. For our student-athletes, for our university, for our future generations."

Thomas was quite successful in the MLB. The two-time MVP, four-time Silver Slugger and five-time All-Star is currently the only SEC player in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Thomas has undoubtedly left a legacy, both at Auburn and in baseball as a whole, that will never be forgotten. The first-ever statue outside of Plainsman Park will remind fans of that legacy every time they come to a game.

AUBURN — Denver Jones has officially signed his National Letter of Intent to join the Auburn men’s basketball program for the upcoming 2023-24 season. The 6-foot-4, 190-pound shooting guard is a transfer from Florida International University who averaged 20 points and 3.8 rebounds per game during his sophomore season. Rated the No. 26 overall transfer in the country by 247Sports, he also shot 35.7% from behind the 3-point arc, 86.4%

Originally from New Market, Alabama (near Huntsville), he started and played in all 27 games of the season for the Golden Panthers, scoring in double figures in 25 of those contests. He registered a career-high 30 points at Rice on March 4. Additionally, Jones ranked fifth nationally in mid-range field-goal percentage.

During his freshman campaign at FIU, he was named Conference USA Freshman of the Week and led the league in free throw percentage (89.6).

Jones began his collegiate career at Garden City (Kan.) Community College. There, he garnered All-Region Second Team, All-Conference First Team and Jayhawk Conference Freshman of the Year honors. He averaged 19.1 points per game and shot 40% from long range. next day. We've still got some time to help them improve, hopefully."

The son of Ernest and Jennelle Jones, he finished his prep career at Memphis (Tenn.) Day Academy and was tabbed All-Area, First-Team All-Region and Second Team All-State. His older brother, Dallas Jones, played college basketball at South Alabama and Texas Wesleyan.

Finley, a 6-foot-7 junior who has started a total of six games for the Tigers, took the most attempts on Saturday. Finley went 11-for-19 on his passes for 137 yards and a touchdown.

“It’s about competing and bettering ourselves in each aspect of the game — mentally and physically,” Finley said on the quarterback competition. “Anywhere in the country, guys are competing, at each and every school. It’s always good to compete. You need competition to bring the best out of you each and every day, and I think we’re all responding to it well.”

Ashford, the former Oregon Duck who started most of the season for Auburn last year, took the second-most attempts. Ashford went 12-for-16 passing for 132 yards. He also added a rushing TD.

“I feel like every single day I found something to get better at,” Ashford said on being challenged in practice. “Coach Freeze definitely challenged me, and I appreciate that because he has taught me so much already in such a short amount of time. Being able to go out there and have him challenge me has been really good. Just from our talks, he is a coach who really cares and really wants to see me succeed. Him, coach (Philip) Montgomery, coach (Kent) Austin and coach (Jesse) Stone have all just helped me tremendously and have gotten me so much better from day one of spring ball to practice No. 15.”

Geriner, the redshirt freshman who only saw the field in one game last season, went 9-for-11 passing for 71 yards and one TD. Additionally, Geriner scored a crucial twopoint conversion that helped the offense complete its comeback late in the game.

“That’s been something that I’ve been trying to implement recently, just being able to run a lot more,” Geriner said on the two-point conversion. “I think I’ve definitely improved on that a lot and it’s something I like to show.”

While all three quarterbacks on Auburn’s roster flashed potential at A-Day, Freeze said he has not ruled out the possibility of the Tigers bringing in a quarterback from the transfer portal.

“The transfer portal opens soon, and we are open to any position that would help us improve our team as long as they fit within the culture, and that includes the quarterback room,” Freeze said after the game. The 2023 football season is still a few months away, however, so Freeze and company still have time to continue to move some things around in order to give the Tigers the best chance of competing in 2023.