After setback at Auburn, pitcher Chase Allsup reestablished himself. The Orioles took notice.

This was Chase Allsup’s season. He entered it as Auburn’s Friday night starter, serving as an ace for the Southeastern Conference program. But, two months later, Allsup was out of the weekend rotation entirely.

The Tigers knew Allsup had the chops for the role, yet the beginning of SEC play derailed a promising beginning to the year. The right-handed junior allowed four or more earned runs in four of his first five conference appearances, and Auburn made a change.

For two weeks, he didn’t throw in a conference game. His opportunity to shine as a marquee starting pitcher in one of the most competitive college atmospheres seemed to fall by the wayside, and Allsup had a choice to make.

“You can look at it one of two ways,” Allsup said in a phone interview. “You can say, ‘Hey, this is rock bottom, and the only way to go is up from here.’ Or you can turn away from it and kind of shut down.”

Allsup celebrated Monday afternoon in the living room of his grandparents’ house in Alabama because he chose the former.

When all went sideways — a stretch that ended with a season-high three home runs allowed against Kentucky in April — Allsup’s meetings with the coaching staff transformed his season and led him to the Orioles, with Baltimore selecting him in the fourth round of the MLB draft.

Allsup reset himself over the course of two weeks. He worked on his mindset on the mound, narrowing his focus to what he could control, and when he returned to game action everything clicked.

In his last four outings of the season, Allsup pitched to a 2.11 ERA, with 31 strikeouts and just four walks in 21 1/3 innings.

“It all turned out to be a mindset thing. It was all in my own head. You’ve gotta be able to go out and compete, and the things you can control, control those and let the other stuff go,” Allsup said. “And, once I started doing that, I came out of relief against Ole Miss. Had a good outing there. And then the next two games I started was Missouri and Alabama, and that’s when everything started to be where I wanted it to be.”

Those performances elevated Allsup’s profile ahead of the draft. When he arrived at the draft combine in Arizona last month, the Orioles met with him. The conversation with Baltimore representatives was an indication of the Orioles’ interest, but until his phone rang on Monday, Allsup wasn’t sure.

Inside the house, his parents and grandmother watched the draft on television. Allsup couldn’t sit still; he paced outside in the heat. When Allsup’s mother walked outside, his phone rang. It was the call.

“The feeling of it was kind of surreal, like you can’t believe it’s happening,” Allsup said. “You sit around, you talk about it with family and teammates and everything, and then it actually happens and you almost don’t know how to react.”

So, how did Allsup react?

“The first person who was right next to me was my mom when I got the call,” Allsup said. “It was an immediate rush over and hugged her. Then, ‘Hey, we’ve got to go inside so we can watch it on TV getting called in.’ My dad was sitting, and we didn’t want to spoil anything for him. So I had to kind of keep my own excitement to myself until afterward, and then everybody in the house kind of blew up with excitement, myself included.”

In the time since Allsup was selected as the first of 11 pitchers Baltimore chose over the three-day draft, the idea of entering a highly regarded Orioles farm system has become especially exciting. Baltimore hasn’t yet seen a pitcher drafted under general manager Mike Elias reach the major leagues, although the expansion of its pitching lab has revolutionized how its hurlers are throwing.

The Orioles have developed new pitches, altered mechanics and seen success stories — such as 2023 ninth-rounder Zach Fruit, who is rising the minor league ranks.

The Orioles think they might’ve unearthed another gem in Allsup.

“He’s the guy who our group sort of identified as maybe an undervalued player in the industry, a player that we felt like we could work with,” said Matt Blood, the Orioles’ vice president of player development and domestic scouting. “We sort of all along targeted him in this range, and we were happy to see he was still available, and he was the top guy on our board at that time.”

Allsup has an idea of how his pitch arsenal can improve once he arrives in Florida at the Orioles’ training complex. His four-seam fastball is a major part of his game, and he throws it routinely in the mid to upper 90s. Allsup also has a new changeup and a slider and curveball, but he wants to perfect all three secondary pitches.

The changeup is a modification he added during winter break ahead of his junior year at Auburn, when he shifted his split-finger grip and added another finger onto the ball to create more arm-side run. It’s a particular weapon against left-handed hitters, but Allsup used it inside against righties to force weak, pull-side grounders as the year went on.

His curveball and slider can morph into one another on occasion, so a major goal of Allsup’s is to create more 12-to-6 vertical movement on the curveball. By doing so, he would avoid the glove-side sweep that can make it look too similar to his slider.

Allsup also toyed with a cutter during his junior year, although he scrapped it because of its unpredictability — for every success, there would be a cutter that became more of a slider, or one that didn’t move much at all. If the Orioles deem it beneficial, Allsup said, he’s open to working on the offering again.

In all, he has a four-pitch mix and a track record that sets Allsup on the path of becoming a rotation arm.

“The stuff aspect, they were happy with how some things were, but as I’m sure everybody has said and you’ve seen, there’s still room for some development,” Allsup said. “With the Orioles having such a good developmental program with their minor leagues and everything else, it was only a good fit to be able to be picked by them.”

Four months ago, when Allsup’s place as Auburn’s Friday night ace teetered and fell, the pitcher’s draft prospects might’ve fallen with it. But his choice sent him this way — he worked on his mindset, returned to the mound and succeeded.

That, as much as the pitches that sizzle out of his right hand, shows major league potential.