How Auburn baseball built another NCAA super regional team despite this recruiting disadvantage

AUBURN — The cleanup hitter almost didn't play college baseball.

Bobby Peirce's senior season was sidetracked by injury. He was a state golf champion and a motivated student set to attend Arizona State on a business scholarship, but he always wanted to play baseball.

His goal was to walk on at ASU, but when the high school senior recovered late in the season, South Mountain Community College discovered him during a playoff game. Peirce came to his mom with another idea.

He could live at home and take the same ASU classes through South Mountain. Most importantly, "it would be a much better deal, and I could play baseball," he told her. Those are the two focal points of Peirce's decision-making, one rational and calculating, the other romantic about the sport he loves – he once named a cat Fenway Park.

So when Auburn discovered him years later at South Mountain, he was conflicted.

"His business mind," Wendy Peirce said, "it was hard to make him go and know that we would pick up the tab."

That's the perpetual obstacle Auburn faces in recruiting.

In NCAA equivalency sports, state-funded academic lottery scholarships don’t count toward a team’s cap. Baseball programs are allotted 11.7 scholarships to spread out in fractions.

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Alabama is among the SEC's only states without lottery scholarships. Other schools can use them to keep in-state talent home, then portion out the 11.7 among the best out-of-state prospects.

But Auburn coach Butch Thompson has found sustained success despite the recruiting disadvantage. Auburn (40-19) is in its third super regional in the last five years, this time with a largely different cast from the 2019 College World Series team.

"It's been challenging," Thompson said. "I really feel like being in this footprint for the majority of my career, that an Auburn and Alabama are some of the most challenging schools in America (to recruit). That's probably why when you see injuries happen, it lands on us harder. Because the depth doesn't seem to be there when we go into that."

How has he handled it? Starting from "home plate," with kindness to convince players and an eye for mid-major and junior college talent.

Auburn has key in-state players from Hoover (Sonny DiChiara), Mobile (Brooks Carlson), Montgomery (Trace Bright), Oneonta (Brody Moore) and Dothan (Blake Burkhalter).

Family ties help. Moore is one of the last remaining players from the 2019 run. He's a second-generation Auburn baseball player.

DiChiara's dad played for Alabama, but his mom is an Auburn alum. "She got to him before I did," Michael DiChiara said. "He was always an Auburn fan. I never could get him to switch." The emotional pull was so strong that when Auburn offered the Samford transfer, DiChiara's decision was automatic. He's a .397 slugger.

When Carlson entered the portal from Samford as a grad transfer, Thompson already had a relationship with the family. Brooks' younger brother Parker signed in 2020. Their dad, Danny, met Thompson during Parker's recruitment.

"I did my homework," he told the coach. "I called a couple people who know you, had kids play for you. I cannot find anybody who will say anything negative."

Thompson said that Danny must not be searching hard enough. But by 2021, Danny was one of those parents who only had glowing reviews. Brooks jumped at the opportunity to play with his brother for a year. He bats fifth with a .401 OBP.

Venturing out of state requires an ability to spot talent where others aren't looking – players like Peirce and Blake Rambusch who dream of playing SEC baseball but don't have offers from rival programs.

Rambusch called his mom from Grayson College after Auburn offered him. He was reeled in by Thompson's kindness, even though he hadn't visited campus.

"They're just good people," he told her.

His mom, Tracy St. Tours, was reluctant about him moving so far from Texas. Not long after, she saw a man in the grocery store wearing Auburn apparel. When she told him about her son, his face lit up.

He had met Thompson and become an avid fan of the coach's speaking engagements. The encounter stuck with St. Tours. She was reassured. Rambusch bats .353 in the leadoff spot.

Peirce was torn in 2020 when Arizona was the safe option for the junior college right fielder. The SEC was a dream.

"He was reluctant because he just thought it was not as good of a deal," his mom said.

Then he visited campus. Thompson's strategy? Work with what you've got.

"If you're a baseball player here, you live in a dorm where you overlook your field," he said. "Who else has got that?"

It was the 2019 Iron Bowl when Peirce was swept away by the atmosphere. Fans gave him toilet paper to help roll Toomer's Corner. He loved the custom.

And the experience was capped with a moment of sympathy from Thompson.

"Bobby's whole career has been diluted by 'Bobby Pierce,'" his mom said. His name was often misspelled online, and his best moments as a recruit went unseen by coaches searching his name. It was even misspelled on a jersey once during a campus visit.

When facing Auburn's disadvantages, Thompson says, "you need a break along the way."

Maybe this was one.

"Whatever you do," Wendy Peirce told Thompson, "make sure his name is spelled correctly."

Thompson was emphatic: Auburn would get it right.

Peirce bats .295 in the cleanup hole, and a super regional-bound Auburn bats 1.000 on his name.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn baseball built NCAA super regional team despite disadvantages