Auburn baseball lands a promising grad-transfer pitcher from MAC

Auburn baseball lands promising transfer Jonathan Beard from the University of Miami-Ohio.

On Saturday, the Auburn baseball team received a bit of good news in regards to next year’s team. University of Miami-Ohio transfer and pitcher Jonathan Brand announced that he was transferring to Auburn via his Twitter account.

Brand is a native of Columbus, Georgia which is about 45 minutes east of Auburn. In high school, Brand was very successful. The product of Columbus High School was named the Region Player of the Year during his senior season. Along with that prestigious honor, he was also named to the All-Region team three different times.

After his high school days came to an end, he chose to further his college baseball career at East Georgia State. It didn’t take Brand long though to realize that he had potential beyond the junior college level. In his lone season with the Bobcats, he had nine starts on the mound with a 3.99 ERA (earned run average). He also struck out 67 batters in 47.1 innings pitched.

In his three seasons with the RedHawks, he had an impressive 12-6 record. In 154.4 innings pitched, Brand maintained a 2.54 ERA. He also had 181 strikeouts over the course of those three seasons. He will be a very valuable piece to the pitching rotation for the Tigers next season. Head coach [autotag]Butch Thompson[/autotag] and his coaching staff are building something special on the Plains. Recruits and transfers are buying into the program and it is starting to show. Brand will be a pitcher to keep an eye on next season when the Tigers return to Plainsman Park. Now, they have to take care of business in their region.