Alabama baseball has had as good a start as one could have imagined this season. The group was unranked in the preseason but now sits ranked No. 8 in the country.
The Crimson Tide currently has a 25-4 record and is 6-3 in SEC play thus far, facing off against Texas A&M, No. 1 Tennessee and No. 10 Oklahoma. Here are takeaways from Alabama’s first three weekends of SEC play thus far.
The offense has been clutch
A big factor in the Crimson Tide’s strong start to conference play has been its ability to rally late in games and steal wins. This ability immediately showed in the team’s first two conference games at Texas A&M, as both affairs were tied heading into the top of the ninth.
In Game 1, infielder Brennan Norton and outfielder Kade Snell hit back-to-back home runs to put the Crimson Tide up 6-4, which would end up being the final score. Then in Game 2, with the bases loaded and two outs, infielder Will Hodo slugged a grand slam to help Alabama escape College Station with a 6-2 victory.
Then this previous weekend against Oklahoma, the Crimson Tide offense did it again. The group was down 6-5 headed into the bottom of the eighth, but Snell tied it with an RBI single, catcher Will Platner slugged home a go-ahead RBI double, and infielder Jason Torres added insurance with an RBI single. Alabama would end up winning 8-5.
“This group is just super resilient. They really never let the moment get too big for them,” head coach Rob Vaughn said. “They don’t let the moment become bigger than it is, and that’s why this group succeeds so well late.”
The team has depth
Star players like infielder Justin Lebron and pitcher Riley Quick, who both received national attention in the preseason, have played big parts in the team’s hot start. But it hasn’t just been those two who have made major impacts this season.
It has been a team-wide effort, both with the offense and the ptching. Lebron is the centerpiece of the offense, but hitters like Norton, Snell, Plattner, Torres and Hodo have all contributed big ways to victories this season, making the Crimson Tide lineup deep from top to bottom.
Pitching-wise, it has been a similar story, as Quick has unsurprisingly contributed to wins, but pitchers Zane Adams, Bobby Alcock and Aeden Finateri have all started and won games in conference play thus far, and closer Carson Ozmer has been very effective late in games.
“What I like so much about this group is that it’s not just one guy who’s a hero,” Snell said. “It can be anybody in our ballclub that can make a difference at any given time.”
The bullpen has raised concerns
The biggest roadblock this Alabama baseball team has right now is the bullpen’s performance, which just hasn’t been good enough.
In 37.2 innings from bullpen pitchers in conference play, they’ve given up 24 runs, leading to a 5.81 ERA, which is poor compared to the SEC average of 4.27, and will need to be fixed sooner rather than later.
The late-game bullpen pitching hasn’t been optimal, either. There have already been three games in conference play in which the Crimson Tide have given up the tying or go-ahead run in the last three innings. It was almost four after the bullpen gave up 4 runs in the last three innings on Sunday, but Alabama held on to win 8-6.
It has been a problem protecting leads, but there have also been blowups that put games out of reach. In Game 2 against Tennessee, after being down 5-0 early, the Crimson Tide rallied to make it 5-3, but the bullpen gave up 4 runs in the eighth to essentially put the game out of reach. A similar problem arose the next day, as 6 runs given up by the bullpen contributed to a 9-2 loss.
The hot start wasn’t a fluke
After the team’s 19-1 start to the season, it was fair to wonder if it was just beating up on poor nonconference competition or if this team had turned a corner and was among the nation’s best.
The answer for now seems to be the latter. The Crimson Tide immediately made a big statement when the group swept Texas A&M in College Station, the first time the Aggies had gotten swept at home since 2021.
Then, in its next conference game against No. 1 Tennessee, Alabama won 6-5. Although the Crimson Tide lost the next two games, it followed it up with a series win over No. 10 Oklahoma.
A 6-3 conference record when facing off against two top 10-ranked teams and the other series being on the road is impressive. Vaughn’s squad will look to continue as one the nation’s elite teams.
