After a pivotal batting practice two weeks ago, Drew Faurot knew he was due for a breakthrough. He just wasn’t sure when.

The switch-hitting middle infielder from Florida State had been struggling since joining the Whitecaps on June 25. His average was hovering around .200. He hadn’t hit a home run. He was striking out often, from both sides of the plate.

Faurot arrived less than a week after the Seminoles’ season ended in the College World Series on June 19, and the adjustment from aluminum to wood bats was difficult to navigate.

But something clicked in that batting practice, which Faurot attributed to a small tweak in his stance and feeling fully adjusted to wooden bats. A week later, in the Whitecaps’ 11-0 win at Wareham on July 13, the progress finally showed in a game.

It started with a three-run blast in the bottom of the third, Faurot’s first home run of the summer. Facing a right-handed pitcher, Faurot hit from the left side, crushing the ball to right-center. He roped a double to left field his next at-bat and legged out an infield single in the seventh to finish 3-for-4.

“It started to feel better off the machine,” Faurot said. “And then it kind of showed up in the [Wareham] game, probably a week after I started to feel really good.”

Since that game, he’s been on a tear. From July 13 to July 20, Faurot hit .571 with a .625 on-base percentage all while slugging a ridiculous 1.357, as calculated by Whitecaps Baseball Operations Intern Anthony Marotta. He also recorded an average exit velocity of 84.5 miles per hour in that span, according to Marotta.

The sample size is small, but he has transformed into one of the hottest hitters on the Cape.

Faurot played 26 games with Orleans in 2023, hitting just .221 with eight RBI. He never truly found his footing, although his numbers improved slightly at the end of the season. And though he’s shown legitimate pop in college (21 HRs in two seasons), Faurot didn’t hit any home runs with the Firebirds.

The tweak to Faurot’s batting stance came after consulting with his father, uncle and Nate Headley, a player development coach at Tennessee-based training program 108 Performance. With their advice, Faurot opted to close off his stance slightly, moving his front foot a few inches closer to the plate.

“To be honest, that’s really the only thing I did,” Faurot said. “That seemed to really help.”

The success continued into the games following the Wareham breakthrough, from both sides of the plate. Faurot’s father, Adam, taught his son to switch-hit from age 2, so Drew is equally effective on each side, although he is naturally a righty.

As a result, Faurot’s adjustments translated on both sides. That was evident in an 8-6 loss to Hyannis on July 16. Faurot hit two homers in the game, one as a lefty and one as a righty. It was only the third time in league history a player has accomplished that feat and the first instance since 2002, according to league historian Mike Richard.

He’s also gained the opportunity to play every day. Last summer in Orleans, Faurot played in over half of the Firebirds’ games but was never a true part of the team’s everyday core. He’d start for a few consecutive games, then sit for a night, then re-enter the lineup. There was little continuity.

But since he has arrived in Brewster, he’s been a constant — even as he slumped through his first few weeks.

“He’s played every day here since he’s been here, and there’s a reason for it,” Whitecaps manager Jamie Shevchik said after Faurot’s two-homer game in Hyannis. “If his body can take it, he’s probably going to end up playing the next 15 games.”

Shevchik has attributed some of Faurot’s success to an increased level of confidence. After the breakout Wareham game, the manager joked that he finally caught Faurot crack a smile after he was stone-faced through his slump.

But Faurot pushed back, insisting he’s been having fun since he arrived. The success is merely a result of his process paying off.

“I’ve never not been confident,” he said. “I knew it was coming.”