For the seniors on the Alabama baseball team, this is it. Thankfully, for those seniors, the Tide is also fielding what is perhaps its deepest team in recent memory. Head coach Mitch Gaspard, in his third year with Alabama, has brought in a talented recruiting class. He’s brought back the core of a team that went 35-28 last season. This, coupled with a productive fall and spring, should help the Tide have one of its most successful seasons in years. “What’s comforting is our position players, they got experience there,” Gaspard said. “Certainly led by [Taylor Dugas] and some other guys. So, there’s a lot of excitement with our team, with our coaching staff right now to take that first step of getting better as we move throughout the season.” One of Alabama’s key returning players this season is senior Taylor Dugas, who led Alabama with a .349 batting average, 60 runs, 84 hits and eight home runs. A certain amount of luck was involved in bringing in the right personnel for Alabama. Dugas had to make the decision between entering the draft or returning to school for his senior season. Dugas was drafted in the eighth round of the MLB Draft, following an All-American season. Despite the offer, Dugas elected to return for his final season with the Tide. “The main reason I decided to come back to school was I knew I’d be graduating in May,” Dugas said. “Also, coming back to this team, I knew this team was going to be really good this year. We had our ups and downs last year, but guys got better throughout the season, and I was excited to come back.” Gaspard was also able to bring in a group of young pitchers. Indeed, Gaspard said he has confidence in his pitchers, many of whom are freshmen. One of these freshmen, Taylor Guilbeau, will start the Tide’s first game of the season Friday against the Florida Atlantic Owls. “Really, our anticipation of this group is with our young pitching staff,” Gaspard said. “[We] have to see how those guys can go out and how they perform for their first time. First collegiate start, first collegiate time to take the mound.” Fifth-year senior Jon Kelton said the youth on the team would be one of his team’s biggest strengths throughout the season. Kelton said the younger players on the team have a good mindset and a good group of seniors to lead them. Another benefit is that many of the young players will get some early-season experience, which could prove beneficial as the season wears on. “It always helps to get ‘em in early,” Kelton said. “Even when you’re an older guy, when you get those games in early – get some playing time under your belt, get those preseason jitters out of the way – it always helps. So, I know that we got a lot of guys really ready to play.” Despite the team’s youth, Kelton said he’s never seen a deeper team during his time playing at UA. “This is without a doubt, in the five years that I’ve been here, one of the deepest teams as far as the young talent we’ve brought in and the older guys we’ve got on the mound and position-player wise,” Kelton said. “So, it’s going to be exciting this year just to see it all pan out.” Dugas echoed his teammate’s thoughts. “I really think this team’s going to be better,” Dugas said. “We got a lot of guys back with a lot of experience. Even though we’re young on the mound, I really feel like this team’s got a lot of potential and a lot of big things coming our way.” The Tide will need that depth this year, as it will have to traverse the always-difficult SEC schedule, as well as a tough nonconference slate. Last season, the Tide suffered through the SEC portion of its schedule, going 7-14 in-conference, despite a 35-28 overall record. “When you look at the league, you look at the rankings now, there are six teams ranked in the top 25 [from the SEC],” Gaspard said. “Obviously, it’s the elite talent that’s in this league hat. Also, from playing one another, you’re so battle-tested throughout the league when you get to postseason play, you’re so prepared to go into regional.” Another issue from last season Alabama will need to address is its batting. The Tide seemed to have to scrounge for runs last year, and success on the plate this year could determine the overall success of this team. Dugas said he believes the offense will play a much larger factor in the team’s success this year, however. “Last year, we played a lot of small ball, bunted a lot,” Dugas said. “We didn’t hit as well as we should have at times. This year, after what I’ve seen this whole fall and spring, we can really swing the bat. And I really think this offense is going to carry us far this year.” Still, the prevailing thought on this team is not to look ahead into the season, but to take the season one pitch, one inning, one game at a time. “It’s one game at a time,” Kelton said. “That’s the way we’ve always been the most successful, just focusing on one game, one inning.” But despite all the big talk, all the expectations and progress made during the preseason, one thing stands above all else for this team: finally getting the season started. “We had a great fall,” Dugas said. “It’s going to be exciting to get started and playing some new faces… Overall, expectations are always we want to win the SEC. We feel like we got a good shot at competing for that this year, and going into the postseason, the goal is always Omaha. But we know we’ve got to take that one day at a time, and we understand that it’s a process of getting there, and we just got to get better every day.”