‘It is not supposed to look this easy.’ Ike Irish fuels Auburn baseball’s hot start
Auburn baseball entered the season unranked in four of the six major polls due to what is believed to be a lack of experience in several areas.
Two weeks into the season, the Tigers appear to be in a strong position to have another strong season. Freshman Ike Irish is one of the main reasons why.
Irish, a true freshman from Hudsonville, Michigan, was Auburn baseball’s top signee of the 2022 recruiting cycle as by being the No. 2 overall player from Michigan, and the No. 39 overall prospect. Through seven games, he has more than lived up to expectations.
He currently bats .586 with 17 hits and six RBI. The most eye-popping stat of the young season is that he has recorded a hit in every game, with all but one being a multi-hit affair. In Auburn’s most recent series against USC, Irish went 8-for-13 at the plate with two RBI. In addition to Auburn baseball fans, his early success at the plate is impressing his teammates.
“After his second hit in (Friday’s) game, I looked at somebody and said, ‘it is not supposed to look this easy,” Auburn sophomore Cooper McMurray said following Auburn’s 12-6 win over USC on Saturday.
When asked about his assessment of the talented freshman, head coach Butch Thompson cites his maturity not only in his actions but also in his physique and at-bat approach.
“A lot of times, guys come to school and it’s like ‘they need to grow, they need to fill out and get in the weight room to get a little stronger.’ Those boxes are already checked,” Thompson said of Irish. “He is physical, he’s confident, that’s another one that is sometimes not readily available with a first-year player. He has a couple of things there. I haven’t seen him give an at-bat away. He always seems interested. I’m pretty excited that he is on our team.”
You can sense the “seasoned veteran” mindset of Irish in the way he speaks about the game as well. When it comes to his at-bat mentality, he says that he takes a very simple approach, and does not think too much about what needs to be done.
“I think that it is just (being) as simple as possible,” Irish said Saturday. “In the few at-bats that I’ve had this year, especially with the double I hit (on Saturday), I was just thinking ‘just see it up.’ It is small thoughts like that. I think hitting is all mental. So it is just being able to use my thoughts in a good, positive way, but keeping them short so that they don’t interfere with my body doing its’ job.”
His efforts in last week’s action earned him his second SEC Freshman of the Week award in as many weeks. In three wins over North Alabama and USC, Irish went 11-for-17 at the plate, recording multiple hits in every game, with three RBI. His quest for a three-peat begins Wednesday when Auburn faces Florida A&M at 6 p.m. CT.
