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2020 MA Spring Team Preview - Auburn

AUBURN, Ma. - Eric Swedberg joked when talking about the upcoming season at Auburn.

“We have the talent,” the veteran head coach said. “Hopefully, I won’t have to coach much.”

Last season was not a joking matter for Swedberg, whose Rockets finished 14-7, losing in the first round of the playoffs.

“It was a disappointing season,” admitted Swedberg, who is entering his 16th season at the helm of Auburn. “We had some arm injuries and some other injuries that affected what we thought would be a good season. We didn’t have the nine guys out there we thought we’d have.”

This time around Auburn is looking at a pitching staff featuring four senior right-handers to carry the load.

“Pitching is the strength of this year’s team … as long as we’re healthy which was an issue last year,” Swedberg related.

Nigel Belgrave, Coleman Picard (7-1, 1.42 ERA, 44.1 innings), Michael Breen and Aiden Gowaski (3-3, 3.26 ERA, 34.1 innings) represent a solid core of pitchers for Auburn. Belgrave, a Maryland signee ranked 12th in the 2020 New England class, and Breen, a Salve Regina commit rated 107th among New England seniors, “came into last season with arm injuries,” according to Swedberg.

Gowaski, the 593rd-ranked 2020 in New England, was “our solid number two last year,” pointed out Swedberg, while Picard, a two-way commit to Hartford rated 48th among New England seniors, “was leaned on a lot last year.”

Picard, who batted .361 with a team-high 24 runs last year, and Gowaski are outfielders when not pitching and help make up part of another strength with this year’s team.

“I expect our outfield play to be solid,” Swedberg said. “It’s going to be tough to score runs on us. “Hopefully, we can rely on a simple offense to score enough runs.”

Joe Clougherty, rated 557th among New England seniors, anchors the outfield in center as a four-year starter.

“He’s one of the best outfielders in central Massachusetts,” proclaimed Swedberg, who sees Coleman in right field. Another senior, Kyle Sebasyanski, rated 508th, brings more potential as an outfielder/pitcher on the Rockets.

Breen, a left-handed hitter who averaged .377 with 22 RBIs, will be at shortstop when not on the mound with Nolan Kennedy, a .250 hitter in 2019, back at second base. Belgrave or CJ Willis will be at third base with Willis or Josh Adams, who hit .333 in 2019, at first base.

“CJ wasn’t totally healthy last year, but he’s one of our best hitters,” noted Swedberg of Willis, who hit .400 with eight RBIs and eight doubles in 12 games a year ago

In all, the Rockets return 22 seniors to the program to go along with a handful of juniors.

“We have a lot of others with experience back,” Swedberg pointed out. “We’ll lean heavily on the senior class, but I have trust in those juniors.”

Swedberg, who has led Auburn to the state Final Four seven times - winning twice in 2009 and 2017 - credits a strong program at a young age with being a big part of the success at Auburn.

“We have a good program from Little League on up,” Swedberg explained. “We have a town program with the high school team just an extension of the Little League team. We have a lot more guys that play at a little age so more stay with it. We hope to bring 20 into our freshman tryouts every year. All of our seniors have been playing together since they were four.”

The keys to success this year are simple in the eyes of Swedberg, who enters 2020 with a 251-100 overall coaching record.

“Number one is health,” Swedberg noted. “Number two is running bases aggressively and playing team baseball. With the pitching we have, we just need to play team baseball.”

Swedberg believes “overall baseball intelligence” along with base running are the biggest concerns. “Executing in a 0-0 game is a must. In the past we could have done a better job understanding and communicating.”

Swedberg points to Hudson, Blackstone Valley Tech and Bay Path, which eliminated Auburn in last year’s tournament 1-0, as the top teams to contend with this season in Central Division 3, with pitching making Auburn one of the favorites.

“We think this is as good or better pitching than we had in 2009 when we were 24-2 and beat Plymouth North in the state finals,” Swedberg said.