Alabama hitting coach Andy Phillips could not hide his excitement entering his second season as the hitting coach at his alma mater. “I love this place,” Phillips said. “I deeply care about this university, and I deeply care about our kids.” Head coach Mitch Gaspard is reaping the rewards of an Alabama baseball program that is rich in tradition and that is now producing assistant coaches for him. “He and [assistant coach] Dax [Norris] are two guys that were All-Americans here at the University of Alabama,” Gaspard said. “That doesn’t happen very often.” After his career at the University, where he posted a .356 career batting average and set the career home run record, Phillips went on to have a successful Major League Baseball career, including a four-year stint with the New York Yankees, which included a 2006 season in which Phillips played in 110 games. Phillips’ MLB experience is benefitting the Tide off the field, in recruiting and national recognition, just as much as it is with on-the-field production. “That’s the one thing we feel good about here,” Phillips said. “Having experience at the major league level, we feel good about getting guys here and developing them to be able to have success at the highest level.” Gaspard added, “Most of the guys [Alabama recruits], they know that. They’re going to get on the website and see it. If they don’t know already, and they are from Alabama, their dad knows it. It’s really not something we have to promote a lot because they typically know that already.” Phillips’ players are enjoying the experience of being coached by him. “It’s the best thing ever,” junior second baseman Kenny Roberts said. “Not only did he play here, he’s played with the Yankees at the highest level. For me, to have a guy of that caliber coach me, it’s the best thing ever. I’ve learned a lot since I’ve been here.” Roberts’s learning experience stems from a dedication Phillips has to installing a specific ideology about hitting. “We put a lot of emphasis on our lower half,” Phillips said. “I believe the swing starts from the ground up, so we focus a lot of how the lower half of the swing functions properly.” Now that Phillips has had the entire fall and the spring preseason to establish his philosophy, he hopes to see improvements in specific areas. “I think our consistency, hopefully,” Phillips said. “I think, top to bottom, we have improved. Our guys that are back have improved, and we’ve added some pieces that are going to enhance our lineup. I think consistency and run scoring will certainly be something that hopefully improves from last season.” Phillips is enthusiastic about smaller aspects of the game, such as consistency, thanks to another large part of his philosophy as a coach. “I’m not much on concerning myself with results,” Phillips said. “I’m not going to look up at how many runs and how many hits we are getting, but the quality of the at-bats. That’s what the focus is on, that we’re getting quality at-bats and we’re not giving anything away.”