By Jeff Roberson
HottyToddy Contributor
robersonjeff0630@gmail.com
Auston Bousfield remembers what Fuller Smith told first-year Ole Miss baseball players when they arrived in Oxford in the summer of 2011.
“If you guys get to Omaha,” Bousfield recalls, basically paraphrasing Smith’s words as close to a direct quote as possible, “This town, this school, they’ll remember you around here forever.”
Smith, a Rebel staff member at the time and now an assistant coach at Sam Houston State, should know. He was once an Ole Miss baseball player, too. He had an intimate understanding of what a June run to Nebraska would mean for Rebel Nation.
Bousfield, the Rebels’ centerfielder from 2012 to 2014, said the players listened but didn’t really buy what Smith was selling – the part about how much fans would love them.
He knows better now and has for the past six years.
“It’s true,” Bousfield admitted. “I can go up to Oxford—and this goes for anybody on that team—people always say ‘We remember 2014. That was awesome,’ to this day. That’s pretty sweet for people to remember us like that.”
Bousfield, a junior that season, speaks honestly of his assessment of that ballclub.
“Don’t get me wrong, we were talented, but it wasn’t like we had a bunch of big-league players on that team,” he said. “Chris (Ellis) made it. Braxton (Lee) had a little bit of big-league time. We had some older guys – (Austin) Anderson, (Will) Allen, (Scott) Weathersby, (Aaron) Greenwood. But there were some young guys who played a lot, too.”
Bousfield had already been a part of road Regionals at Texas A&M in 2012 and North Carolina State in 2013. Then came an Oxford Regional championship and the Super Regional title in Lafayette, La.
“Omaha and just getting to play there was such a surreal moment,” he said. “We were just locked in to try to play the game. You almost forget to soak it all up while you’re there because you want to win.
“When I think about that team, a lot of us had played since we were freshmen. I just remember, especially for us older guys, what a laid-back group it was, and I think that helped relieve the tension for young players like JB (Woodman) and Errol (Robinson) and Colby (Bortles). If the coaches got on us, those guys could see how the older guys heard it but shook it off and let it roll off our backs.”
Bousfield’s 286 at-bats in 69 games in 2014 are the most in a single season in Ole Miss baseball history, and his 96 hits that year still rank sixth all-time for one season. He said focus and drive often carried them through some difficult moments, games, or even weekends.
“I remember after we got swept at Alabama, we had a little get-together when we got home and kind of hung out with each other. We let the younger guys know that it wasn’t the end of the season, lots of games left, and we all know you may get swept at some point. But you move on.”
The Rebels tied for third in Omaha going 2-2. Bousfield turned pro. Drafted in the fifth round by the Padres, he spent the next several years getting ever so close to the majors.
“I left Oxford and went straight to the short season. I played well. The next year I went to High A and played well there, a little more than half the year in the California League. Then they moved me up to Double-A San Antonio and I played in Double-A the rest of that year and half of the next year. Then they moved me up to El Paso, which was Triple A. I was kind of back and forth between Double-A and Triple-A that season. Then it was the same for the next two or three years.
“I got close. They moved me fast. When I got to Double-A, that’s when I saw the turn. I was like, ‘OK, these kids can play.’ That’s when I really saw the change in talent level. I would say those kids in Double-A and Triple-A, they’re good enough to play in the big leagues. It was cool just to see at that level that I wasn’t that far away from some of the best players in the world. Obviously those guys are in the big leagues for a reason.”
Three full seasons in pro ball and Bousfield was giving some serious thought to his future. This was prior to the 2018 season.
“I was beginning to think I might not want to keep going,” he said. “I was like, all the travel and everything it takes to be a professional athlete…..so I sat down with my parents and told them I was going to give it one more season to see. That’s kind of how it went. And I played decent my last year.”
But he wrapped it up after a AAA season in 2018, on his own terms and with his baseball years in the past. Bousfield is now back home in Florida with a memory bank filled with special moments growing up with baseball, through college and four-plus seasons in the pros.
“I now work for a company called Florida Catastrophe,” he said. “It’s a restoration company. I do estimates for them in the greater Orlando area. There’s a lot of storm damage obviously with all the hurricanes we have. We do repairs.
“I’ve been back here about a year and a half. I live in the same town, Oakland, that I grew up in. It’s sandwiched in between Winter Garden and Clermont, which are two pretty big towns. I came back home and finished my degree online from Ole Miss. Then I got this job.”
He keeps up with the Rebels, and he kept up with this year’s team, which was looking like it had the capabilities to match the 2014 team’s journey into late June.
“I was watching some games and the ball was flying out of there,” he said, impressed with what he saw from the long-ball hitting Rebels.
It made him think of all those great times he and his teammates had on Swayze Field.
“I’ve only been back two or three times since I left after my junior season,” Bousfield said. “I was up there with my dad for the Florida baseball series (in 2019) and I’m hoping to come up for the Florida football game this season.”
Right now among college football fans, there is a lot of hope that there’ll be an Ole Miss-Florida football game in Oxford, and a sports season across the board this fall.
Kind of like the hope so many had for the 2014 Rebels and their quest for college baseball’s ultimate destination, especially after winning the Oxford Regional and advancing.
“That Super Regional was crazy,” he said. “It was like a perfect setting for college baseball. I remember dropping a ball in center field in that first game. I remember you guys interviewing me and Chris Ellis because Chris pitched. We were not happy. Our interviews were probably not the best.
“Then Christian (Trent) pitched well that second game, and then that third game…..we were just focused on trying to win and the moment. I remember the dogpile and we were so happy, a whirlwind and we couldn’t believe it.”
But believing was much of what that 2014 team was all about. And it showed for four months.
Advancing to Omaha, as Fuller Smith had predicted two years earlier, made them one of the most beloved and memorable teams in Ole Miss baseball history.
Bousfield’s college decision basically came down to Ole Miss and Florida. He was leaning toward Florida. He loves his home state. But baseball recruiting can be interesting.
He chose the Rebels and got to experience the highs of what baseball is like in Oxford. Now he’s back in his home state, which suits him fine.
“I like Florida. I like the weather. I like being around the water. I like to fish, and there’s a lake a minute north of me. There’s a lake two minutes south of me. There are lakes everywhere, and the beach isn’t far. So it’s a good spot for me down here in these orange grove towns.”
Back a decade ago when Bousfield was being recruited, head coach Mike Bianco, and assistants Carl Lafferty and Matt Mossberg were the UM staff. Also being recruited were a number of players from his area and some who were already on their way to Oxford – Austin Anderson, Will Allen, Sikes Orvis, among them. Later there were players like JB Woodman and Colby Bortles from central Florida.
“At one point I think seven of our starters were Orlando guys,” Bousfield said.
The Ole Miss baseball connection to the Orlando area was as strong as it’s ever been during that era.
“My parents and I went up to visit at Ole Miss,” the player they call “Boz” recalled. “We drove up to Swayze and the lights were on. I mean, how do you say no to Swayze Field?
“And I’ll say this. All three of my college years were the most fun I ever had playing baseball. And that last year was the most fun team by far, not even close. The confidence we played with, the fun we had. We didn’t take it too seriously and it worked for us. Sikes had a mustache all year. It was just a fun team in so many ways.
“Ole Miss wasn’t my first choice,” Bousfield concluded. “But I’m glad it was my final choice.”
