The Auburn Doubledays are set to start their season at home on Friday, June 18th against the Batavia Muckdogs. The Doubledays are coming off a last place finish from last year, however there are reasons for Doubleday fans to be excited for the coming year.
Manager Dennis Holmber returns for his 6th season. The team has 10 returning players from last year. Some key players that Doubleday fans will be happy to see back are pitchers Egan Smith and Shawn Griffith. Smith last year in 9 starts posted a 2-1 record with an ERA of 2.56. He will surely help out a Doubleday staff that last season was not their strength.
Shawn Griffith was unhittable coming out of the bullpen last year, posting a 0.00 ERA and only giving up 4 hits in 6 1/3 innings. Also hoping to improve the staff is 1st round pick Asher Wojciechowski out of The Citadel. Wojciechowski has a very high ceiling and should start a lot of games for the Doubledays this season.
The infield also has some familiar faces returning. Catcher Jack Murphy who appeared in 19 games last season will be back. Lance Durham will return as the starting 1st baseman. Another name to look out for is 3rd baseman Randy Schwartz. In only ten games last year, Schwartz hit 4 homeruns and collected 8 RBI's. And although Schwartz is a returning player, he feels he still has a lot to prove.
"I was only here for the last 10 days and really had a great time, just the atmosphere is great it doesn't matter how big the park is as long as it fills out it feels great. Mainly I just want to focus on getting healthy I broke my foot last year and I had back surgery in the spring too, so health is a huge thing for me."
The outfield is going to have a different look and it could be one that fans have a lot to be excited about. 19 year old Markus Brisker is the only player to return to the outfield. He will be joined by 2 rookies. 3rd round pick Marcus Knecht hopes to add some power to the Doubleday lineup. Knecht hit .472 with 16 HR's and 57 RBI's last season with Connors State. Also Canisius product Steve McQuail hopes to contribute to the Doubledays outfield and help them move out of the basement of the Pinckney Division.
