Add another new member to John Pawlowski’s Auburn baseball staff.

Tuesday, Link Jarrett, who spent the past four seasons as the hitting instructor and recruiting coordinator at East Carolina, was named the AU baseball’s Director of Player Development.

Jarrett replaces former hitting coach Matt Heath, who resigned at the end of the 2009 season.

Jarrett’s role will consist of coordinating and implementing the practice plan for the players, on and off the field, while also helping out assistant coach Scott Foxhall with recruiting.

Jarrett, who played at Florida State from 1991-94 and with the Colorado Rockies organization from 1994-98, will also work with the
Tigers’ hitters along with assistant coach Jeff Duncan, while working closely with the catchers.

“We are very fortunate to have Link Jarrett join the Auburn Tiger baseball family,” Pawlowski said. “He represents the integrity and characteristics on and off the field that will help us continue to build a championship program. Our team will benefit from his coaching, and his playing experiences at Florida State and with the Colorado Rockies organization and his trips to the College World Series will
be invaluable to us.”

Jarrett has coached at Flagler College (2000-02), Florida State (2003) and Mercer (2004-05) before moving on to ECU beginning in 2006.

“Auburn University has a very rich, proud tradition in baseball. I have known John Pawlowski and Scott Foxhall for eight years, and they are proven winners and people I respect tremendously,” Jarrett said. “Jeff Duncan and (Director of Baseball Operations) Scott Duval were awesome to meet and were so helpful and open in our conversations about Auburn, the baseball program, and the community.”

Jarrett and East Carolina advanced to the NCAA Tournament in each of the last three seasons, with the team making a Super Regional appearance this past May and finishing the year 46-20 while winning the Conference USA regular season championship and NCAA
Greenville Regional Championship.

East Carolina was one of the most prolific offenses in the nation this past year, finishing with a NCAA-best 814 hits, was fourth in runs scored (565), sixth in doubles (154), seventh in home runs (108), 12th in slugging percentage (.546) and 15th in batting average (.339), while also leading Conference USA with a .415 on-base percentage, 523 RBI and 1,310 total bases and a .971 fielding percentage.

With Jarrett joining the staff, Auburn hopes to improve on its up and down offense from last season.

Auburn slugged a program-best 103 home runs, but struck out 484 times in 56 games. In their 30 SEC games, the Tigers averaged 9.4 strikeouts per game.

Jarrett was the starting shortstop on three College World Series teams at Florida State (1991, ’92 and ’94) and was named a NCBWA All-American in both 1993 and 1994. Still the NCAA record holder for career assists with 802, he also holds the FSU record for consecutive games played (235) and at bats (989), leading the team with a .325 batting average as a sophomore in 1992.