‘Never out of it’: Senior duo sets the tone for surging Auburn team

AUBURN, Ala. – It was April 23, a month ago to the day. Auburn’s season was on the brink. The Tigers had lost seven of their last 10 SEC games and fell behind 7-0 in the rubber match against Mississippi State. With No. 2 South Carolina and No. 1 LSU on deck, a win was imperative on that Sunday afternoon.

Auburn battled all the way back to within two runs, 10-8, going into the bottom of the eighth inning. With one out, Bobby Peirce singled up the middle. Ike Irish followed with a double, and then Bryson Ware gave the Tigers their first lead of the game with a three-run home run over the green monster in left field. The comeback was complete. Auburn ultimately won 12-11.  

Since that game, the Tigers have gone 10-2 in SEC play with series wins over No. 1 and No. 2. They’re currently riding an eight-game conference winning streak heading into the SEC Tournament this week.

That come-from-behind victory was a defining moment for this team and for this season.

“That’s one of our identities as a team,” Ware said. “Even before SEC play started, we had a bunch of come-from-behind wins. I always say it takes everybody linked up for us to be successful as a team. I knew we were never out of it. I knew the kind of fight we had in this baseball team. We had proven that in earlier games.”

Both Ware and Peirce know a thing or two about fight. Not unlike how many counted Auburn out midway through SEC play, the two senior outfielders have been counted out during their time on the Plains. They didn’t give up.

When Peirce had surgery on both knees following the 2021 season and was told he would never be 100 percent again, he kept fighting. When Ware was mired in an 0-for-18 slump last year and lost his starting job, he kept fighting. Now the duo is at the forefront of this late-season surge and leading the Tigers into the postseason.  

Ware and Peirce arrived at Auburn together in 2020, both coming from junior college. There was an immediate connection. They were roommates their first two years and did everything together on and off the field. The talent was undeniable, too. They saw it in one another from day one.

“When Bobby came in, we would go to Duck Samford Park and hit BP on the field,” Ware recalled. “I was like, ‘This dude has really special stuff. This dude has a chance to be really good.’”

“When we were here our first fall, Bryson was the best player I had ever seen,” Peirce said. “I was like, ‘This kid is a first-rounder.’ It’s unreal. Every time he would come up, he would be hitting the ball hard somewhere.”

The talent didn’t translate to the field in that first season. Peirce saw just 15 at-bats in 2021 before undergoing surgery on both knees to fix abnormal kneecap positioning that caused tendon stress. Ware made his Auburn debut in the 3-hole in the lineup but struggled with consistency, hitting just .212 in conference play.

The next season started off rocky once again for Pierce, who continued to recover from his knee surgeries and was left off the travel roster for Auburn’s opening weekend at the State Farm College Baseball Showdown in Texas.

“Personally, I’ve always had that mentality of never quitting,” Peirce said. “No matter what it is. On the field, off the field, I’m always going to be relentless in whatever I do. If something goes wrong, I’m not going to bury my head and think the world is going to end. I’m always going to be like, ‘OK, how can I figure out how to fix this? How can I make this better?’”

That’s what Peirce did. He kept at it and eventually earned a spot in the starting lineup, playing a major role in the team’s run to Omaha for the College World Series.

However, while Peirce took off, Ware’s struggles got worse. He played in 20 SEC games last year and had just two hits, hitting .074 in conference play. For Peirce to enter the lineup, somebody had to lose their starting job. That somebody was Ware.

“I was really upset that I was struggling at the time, but it gave Bobby an opportunity to play,” Ware said. “And he really made the most of his opportunities.

“I could not be happier we have a dude like that in our lineup, on our team, just a leader like that in our program. He is absolutely a good example of a guy that has stayed in the fight. He’s come to the field every day and worked his butt off to be where he is. It’s really awesome to see him succeed and perform the way he’s performing.”

It was just a bump in the road for Ware, though. His time was coming.

This past Sunday, in the series finale against Missouri, Ware came up in the bottom of the eighth inning with runners on second and third and Auburn trailing by a run. He would not play hero again but only because Missouri would not let him. They intentionally walked him, a sign of how good he’s been this season and how far he’s come from where he was a year ago.

“You go through the hard times to make the good times that much sweeter,” Ware said. “I knew the good times were coming. I just stayed in it as long as I could. I used the times that I went through to strengthen me as a person and strengthen my mentality as a baseball player.”

Later in that same inning against Missouri, Ware and teammate Cooper McMurray scored on a single by Irish to give the Tigers the lead and help secure the series sweep.

Two days later, Ware was named Second Team All-SEC.

“I’m super happy for him,” Peirce said. “We all knew he had it in him. Guys that were here that first fall had seen what he was capable of doing, and he’s showing it now. He’s an awesome guy, an awesome teammate. It’s really cool to see him have the success he’s having.”

Heading into this week’s SEC Tournament, Ware is hitting. 358 with a team-best 21 home runs and 57 RBIs. Peirce, meanwhile, picked up where he left off at the end of last year. He has a hit in 15 of the team’s last 17 games and leads Auburn with a .366 batting average.

Similarly, this Auburn team – which went through its ups and downs this season – is playing its best baseball down the stretch. Nobody gave in when the Tigers were 6-11 in SEC play and facing a 7-0 deficit against Mississippi State.

“It goes to prove that we’re never really out of it,” Ware said. “We were never really out of it this season, never out of it in a baseball game. We can always come back and bite you in the butt if you blink. It’s just a testament to who we are as a team and the kind of fight that we have in every guy on this baseball team.”

Nobody embodies that fight more than Ware and Peirce.