The goal seemed almost a bit too simplistic early this year when John Pawlowski laid out his hopes for his first season as Auburn’s baseball coach.

Make the SEC Tournament.

Be better than just four of the 12 teams in the conference, if necessary.

Basically, tread water.

But it was something Auburn hadn’t done the past five seasons. And it would be something the Tigers simply couldn’t do in Pawlowski’s first go-around with the Tigers — reaffirming that his goal wasn’t so shortsighted after all.

Now, though, the Tigers have to learn from what went wrong — again — to make sure 2010 isn’t unlucky No. 7, Pawlowski said.

“I think there were some guys that got better, but we need to get a whole lot better,” Pawlowski said. “We need to make some big strides in this league. Everybody is getting better and what we have to do is get better, too.”

The focus on how Auburn can get better won’t be any clearer until midway through June, when Pawlowski has a better gauge on his roster following the Major League Baseball amateur draft. What happens in the draft will affect Auburn twofold.

A number of the players Pawlowski has ready to bring in as freshmen for next season will likely be drafted. Depending on how many opt to stay with Auburn rather than take the money will directly affect if Pawlowski has to scramble to make this year’s class worthy of making an impact.

It will also affect the makeup of his current roster, as juniors such as slugging third baseman Joseph Sanders and closer Austin Hubbard will be draft-eligible. Pawlowski said Sanders, who led the team in most hitting categories, told him he will return for his senior season if he is not drafted by the seventh round.

“If he’s not taken there, he would be excited about the opportunity to come back and help this team get to the SEC Tournament,” Pawlowski said.

His presence, a right-handed one in a lefty-dominated Tigers lineup, will certainly help, but a glut of progress elsewhere will also have to occur if Auburn wants to keep playing into the postseason.
Auburn’s pitching, notoriously inconsistent heading into the season, didn’t get much better in 2009.

Grant Dayton, Auburn’s ace the season prior, labored to a 2-6 finish with a 5.92 ERA, as his shortcomings were compounded on nights where he’d square off against the opposition’s ace.
From there, it didn’t get much better, though, as redshirt freshman Jon Luke Jacobs (3-4, 5.74) showed a few flashes of promise but largely struggled, while the Sunday spot in the rotation remained a “revolving door.”

Hubbard (3-3, 4.20, 12 saves), Michael Hurst (4-0, 4.94) and Bradley Hendrix (7-3, 5.09) provided a relative amount of stability from the bullpen, but beyond them it got ugly. Chris O’Neil, Scott Shuman, Zach Blatt and Taylor Thompson all finished the season with ERAs higher than 7.

“We didn’t have the consistency on the mound we need to have,” Pawlowski said. “When you don’t have consistency on the mound, no matter what type of offense you have, it makes it tough.”
The Tigers’ offense was all muscle. It was by no means what Pawlowski expected or desired.

Auburn slugged a program-best 103 home runs, shattering the previous record with plenty of games to spare. But it also broke the strikeout record in a swift amount of time, too.

The Tigers fanned 484 times in 56 games. In their 30 SEC games, they averaged 9.4 strikeouts per game.

“We were a one-dimensional offensive ballclub,” Pawlowski said. “You can’t do that and be successful day in and day out. You need a couple other ways to create offense and we just didn’t have that.”

Pawlowski said the Tigers’ strong offensive start, where they put up numerous double-digit efforts against inferior competition, provided false hope.

“The guys thought that it was just going to be like that the rest of the year,” Pawlowski said. “And certainly it’s not, especially with the good competition and teams in this league.”

That competition won’t relent anytime soon. The Tigers need to simply believe they belong in the same league as it, Pawlowski said.

“No one has been (to the SEC Tournament), so we have to travel that road together and let them experience that,” Pawlowski said. “We’ve just got to get them there and make them realize we can compete and play at this level.”