For Drew Faurot, his transfer to join the Florida State baseball program this offseason was a homecoming in more ways than one.
Obviously, it was a chance for the Tallahassee native who played high-school baseball and football at Florida High to return to his hometown after spending his freshman season at UCF.
However, it was also a chance to follow in his father Adam's footsteps. Adam transferred to FSU from Chipola College ahead of the 1995 season, playing two seasons as an infielder for the Seminoles with 97 starts, two College World Series appearances and a .331 career batting average before a four-year minor league career.
Adam left his son some big shoes to fill in the FSU baseball program as the next Faurot in line. Early in his time with the Seminoles, Drew has exceeded the lofty hype he arrived with after an impressive freshman season last spring at UCF.
The switch-hitting second baseman enters this weekend's First Pitch Invitational in Greenville, S.C., with a .484 batting average, second-best among FSU's regular starters behind only Cam Smith. He leads the team in doubles (5) and stolen bases (4) and is tied for the team lead in runs (11) and hits (15).
"It's fun. We saw flashes of it in fall and preseason, but his at-bats in the games have been really good from both sides of the plate. I think he's handled some fastballs. I think he's also handled some decent secondary pitches..." FSU head coach Link Jarrett said of Faurot. "He's handled a lot of different things from both sides of the plate. He's athletic and, when he gets going, he can run. That's been awesome, it's great."
Faurot has at least one hit in each of his first seven games as a Seminole, with multiple hits in five of his first seven games this season.
"I was just super proud because I know how hard he's worked," Adam Faurot told the Osceola. "When you're on the outside looking in, it's more fantastic or grand. When you are also privy to see someone's work over years and be that close to it, that's what you expect, but when it actually does happen, it's a nice reward.
"I think that's the beautiful thing about sports is you get to see someone's character in that process, you get to see someone's persistence. You get to see just who they are. Getting to see Drew become his own man, that is what I'm looking at when I see him out there. I see someone that I know very well and also someone that I'm getting to know because it's a new journey for him, too. It was pretty cool."
Faurot had quite a bit of success as a freshman at UCF, setting a new freshman program record with 15 home runs and a freshman All-American nod from Collegiate Baseball. However, he hit just .252 and struck out 78 times in 58 games (1.34 Ks per game).
Wanting to learn from someone like Jarrett, a great contact hitter in his own right as a Seminole shortstop in the early 1990s, the early returns on Faurot's hitting improvement are overwhelmingly positive.
He's struck out just twice in FSU's first seven games and he already has over half as many doubles as he had all of last season (9). He had his first career FSU home run in last Friday's win over Western Carolina.
"I kind of blacked out there," Faurot said. "It was something that you can only wish for. It was pretty cool."
Faurot also embarked on a sizable body transformation in his first offseason at FSU. After he was an undersized high-school quarterback and late to baseball, Faurot played his first collegiate baseball season at 185 pounds.
He's now listed at 202 pounds on FSU's official roster but Adam says he's actually up to 210 pounds entering his sophomore season.
"He's running better," Adam Faurot said. "That was big for him because he just couldn't keep the weight on last year. That's just part of getting mature and he's on a great nutrition plan that has really helped."
Drew Faurot spent the fall focused on improving defensively after an error-laden freshman season with the Knights after recording a team-high 17 errors and a .917 fielding percentage last year as a shortstop.
He's one of two sophomore shortstop transfers FSU brought in this offseason and after a position battle between him and North Florida transfer Alex Lodise, he landed at second base while Lodise claimed the shortstop position.
Second base was unfamiliar territory for Faurot, but he's taken well to the position, with only one error committed on 17 balls hit his way through seven games this season.
"He's a very thoughtful athlete. He works very hard at it, he has a routine that he likes to follow. He's very engaged in what he's doing and he is a tough kid. He's physically tough," Jarrett said. "I don't think he had played much second base. I feel like the last week or so of the preseason, he seemed comfortable when we moved him over there. He's a worker. He likes to work. It's fun to see somebody that works at it go out there and have in-game success. He's doing exactly that."
Added Adam Faurot, "This spring, he wanted to focus on his hitting and bring what he did in the fall along with him in terms of defensive skills so that it would come together at the right time. I think that's what he did. I think he's going to be able to have longer, more consistent success just because of the technical work he's put in but the physical work, too, and now the experience starts to help out."
Some home cooking from time to time as he lives back in the same town as his parents and four sisters probably doesn't hurt either.
"We have a very close family so I know (being back in Tallahassee) means a lot to him," Adam Faurot said. "I know he enjoys just coming home and grabbing a meal or seeing his sisters and us and his grandparents, people that he knows."
Being a part of an FSU lineup that has gotten off to quite a strong start to its 2024 season probably doesn't hurt Drew Faurot's happiness about being back in Tallahassee either.
The Seminoles are averaging 11.6 runs per game early this season. The lineup is deep enough that Faurot, who had quite the powerful freshman season, has been hitting fifth, sixth and even occasionally seventh or eighth in the FSU batting order.
"Super impressed (with FSU's lineup). There's power at every spot in the lineup," Faurot said. "Everybody can put the barrel on the ball. We've got a lot of speed in the lineup, too. I think it's a really good lineup."
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