SPRING HILL — To come out ahead of universities like Columbia, Bucknell and the Coast Guard Academy, you have to have something pretty special going for you.
That’s what Springstead High baseball player Andrew Ward saw when Auburn University at Montgomery came calling. A senior catcher for the Eagles, Ward has verbally committed to take his next career step with the Warhawks. Although AUM was an NAIA program prior to the 2019-20 season it quickly has become a rising star in NCAA Division II.
Under first-year coach Franklin Bush, the Warhawks notched their first-ever NCAA South Region Tournament berth last season and were ranked in the top 30 among the nation’s Division II programs. AUM was ranked as high as No. 21 in the nation in the middle of last season.
“It’s definitely a program on the rise,” Ward said. “The head coach is young and relates very well to the players. He has a great baseball mind and I think he’s building something really good. He’s always talking about his team being like family and that’s why it looked like a great situation for me. I think it’s a place where I can really grow as a baseball player and as a man.”
Although prestigious schools like Columbia, Bucknell and the Coast Guard Academy were showing interest in Ward, he only needed a visit to AUM to make his decision.
“When I went up there, it was in the fall and the leaves were changing colors,” Ward said. “I’ve been in Florida all my life so seeing that was pretty awesome. I loved the campus and they have a great Business program and that’s what I want to study.”
Ward has a 4.5 weighted grade-point average, but academics were only part of the equation that won him over. Bush and the baseball program did the rest. Bush is in his first college had-coaching stint. As an assistant for several different college programs previously, he did things like coordinate recruiting. But his on-field specialty always was working with catchers and that caught Ward’s eye.
“He’s definitely catcher-minded and that was very important to me,” Ward said. “He understands the importance of pitchers and catchers working together and communicating.”
But before Ward heads north to Alabama, there’s some unfinished business left at Springstead. In a limited role as a sophomore, he had a .333 batting average for the Eagles. Last year, Ward got off to a strong start. But a back injury sidetracked his junior year. He still managed to hit .270 and led the team with a .471 on-base percentage.
“I tweaked my back and tried to play through it,” Ward said. “That only made it worse. I had to take a couple weeks off and came back in time for the playoffs.”
Ward still was able to help the Eagles to a 13-12 record and a third-place finish in Class 6 A-District 5. But Ward has much higher expectations for his senior season, which starts in February. Those expectations only rose during a recently-completed fall season for the Eagles. Ward, who is now 6-foot 1 and 200 pounds, posted a .448 batting average with a .528 on-base percentage.
The Eagles will have a new coach in David Cazanas, who was an assistant on last year’s staff.
“He reminds me a lot of Coach Bush,” Ward said. “He’s young. He’s almost like an older brother to the players. He relates to us very well and I like that a lot.”
Cazanas takes over a team that lost ace pitcher Branden Anderson to graduation. But Ward said the Eagles return a promising nucleus.
“We’ve got some really good players and I’m really excited about this season,” Ward said. “I think we have a chance to really surprise a lot of people and do something very special.”
