2021 Alabama Baseball Season Preview
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — On Friday afternoon at Sewell-Thomas Stadium, Alabama baseball and fourth-year coach Brad Bohannon will begin the process of attempting to ascend the treacherous SEC baseball mountain once again.
In 2020, the Crimson Tide was off to one of its best starts in program history. Through 17 games, Alabama managed a 16-1 record with the help of some red-hot starts from multiple players, including two freshmen in left-handed pitcher Connor Prielipp and outfielder Owen Diodati. The season was cut short due to COVID-19, and due to the additional year of eligibility provided by the NCAA due to the virus, this year’s roster is a little, shall we say, complicated.
The Crimson Tide holds 19 true freshmen on its roster. In fact, the team only holds four upperclassmen on its roster — two juniors and two seniors. In fact, roughly two-thirds of the team have never had experience against an SEC team.
During the preseason, Bohannon didn’t shy away from admitting that his team is indeed a young one.
“We play young,” Bohannon said in a press conference on Tuesday. “We still play like a team that has 19 freshmen on it and I think that’s probably a theme around college baseball. Baseball is a game of repetition and we just haven’t played enough games in the last 10, 11 months and hopeful that we can play cleaner sooner — show some more maturity on the field sooner. But very pleased with the team, very pleased with the roster, very pleased with the mentality and the focus and the way that the guys are going about their work.”
That being said, Alabama returns a solid group of talent. While it remains to be seen whether the team can pick up where it left off last season after an 11-month hiatus, the ingredients are there for a talented young team to surprise some people. That being said, it’s going to be a tough hill to climb, especially in a division that is widely considered to be one of the toughest in college baseball — a division that the coaches of the conference picked the Crimson Tide to finish last in.
Pitching
On Tuesday, Bohannon announced that his opening-weekend starters against McNeese State would be Prielipp on Friday, freshman Antoine Jean on Saturday and sophomore Dylan Smith on Sunday.
Prielipp starting on opening day should come as no surprise to anyone. In 2020, Prielipp allowed just five hits and no runs in 21 innings played. With his 3-0 record as a starter, Prielipp also only walked six while striking out 35 batters.
Jean and Smith also impressed last season despite their young ages, but Smith has seen the highest promotion since last year. Smith has primarily served the Crimson Tide as a reliever rather than a starter, and even in 2020 only had one start to his name out of four games played.
That being said, Bohannon seems confident in both pitchers heading into 2021, but does admit that there isn’t much separation from the duo compared to eight or nine other guys on Alabama’s roster.
“I’ve said a couple of times and I’ve told the team we’ve got eight or nine guys that I’m anxious to see have extended outings,” Bohannon said. “Antoine and Dylan have thrown the ball really well. I don’t want to take away from the way that they have performed throughout the fall and in the preseason but not a lot of separation from the next eight or nine so you’ll see multiple guys have extended outings over a period of time whether that’s two weeks or four weeks or whatever it may be.”
Whether there is little separation on this Alabama pitching staff’s roster is a good thing remains to be seen. It could be that multiple pitchers have performed well throughout the team’s preseason scrimmages, giving Bohannon a tough decision to make regarding his opening-weekend starters. However, it could also mean that there are improvements to be made with a wide variety of pitchers.
For now, the Crimson Tide has 19 non-conference games to iron out the kinks before SEC play begins at Arkansas on March 19.
For a full breakdown of Alabama’s 2021 pitching staff, click here.
Hitting
Alabama lost two of its key hitters last season to the MLB in outfielder Tyler Gentry and utility player Brett Auerbach. The duo combined for seven home runs, 14 doubles and 35 RBIs through the Crimson Tide’s 17 games in 2020. Gentry and Auerbach also finished first and second on the team in batting average at .429 and .388, respectively.
While the pair of Alabama hitters will be sorely missed, the 2021 lineup is far from lacking. In fact, Bohannon believes that even with the two key departures that this is the best team he’s coached at Alabama.
“Every year that I’ve been here we’ve been better and we’ve won more games,” Bohannon told the All Things Bama Podcast. “We’re better this year than we were last year. It’s a different group and every team is different [and] we’ve got plenty of strengths and weaknesses but we’ve got a really good club. I can’t wait to get into league play and really see what we have.”
To start the process of improving over last year, the first step is to establish continued consistency among its players. Someone who has never failed to provide that is redshirt-sophomore catcher Sam Praytor.
After a solid freshman season, Praytor was sidelined for his sophomore season after suffering an elbow injury that required surgery just six games into the season. Praytor was set for a bounce-back year in 2021, leading the team with six home runs and finishing third on the team in both batting average and RBIs at .350 and 18. While the season was cut short, Praytor should look solid as a leader on the team entering his fourth season at Alabama despite his redshirt-sophomore status.
Diodati returns for his second freshman season after jumping onto the scene in 2020. Diodati was second on the team last season in both home runs and RBIs with five and 22, respectively. That being said, Diodati didn’t have to prove himself against an SEC loaded with talented rosters. Things are certainly looking bright for the young player, but there’s still a lot of tough baseball to be played in order for him to prove himself.
Other highlights that will be frequenting the Crimson Tide’s lineup in 2021 will be sophomores first baseman Drew Williamson and outfielder T.J. Reeves. While Williamson only managed six RBIs, he recorded 14 runs out of 17 hits and managed a batting average of .340 when all was said and done. He also finished second on the team in stolen bases with five stolen out of five attempts.
Reeves tied Williamson in both RBIs and home runs with six and one, respectively. While he managed 15 runs, Reeves also struck out more than any other Alabama batter with 19 in 17 games. If he wants to ascend to the next level on this Crimson Tide team, Reeves will need to have more consistency in 2021.
Like the pitching staff, there is plenty of talent on this 2020 lineup to provide a fairly successful offense for the Crimson Tide in the upcoming season. However, it will need to bring its a-game if it wants to keep up its momentum from the end of last season.
Season Outlook
Overall, the outlook of Alabama baseball in 2020 is fairly optimistic. This team will most definitely be playing with a chip on its shoulder following the reveal that it was picked to finish last in the division by the coaches of the SEC.
In fact, Bohannon stated so himself.
“I would hope that we can create a culture here where we play that way all the time — with an edge,” Bohannon said. “When you play in the SEC West in baseball — which may be the toughest division in all of amateur athletics — you better have an edge and something to prove every time you step on the field.
Bohannon is right regarding the tough SEC West. In Baseball America’s Top 25 poll — the same poll that has Alabama sitting at No. 25 — four of the other teams in the division rank in the top 25. The only two teams in the SEC West that are not currently ranked are Texas A&M and Auburn, and even those teams present a threat year in and year out for the Crimson Tide.
Evaluating Alabama’s schedule, and there is a lot of hills to climb over on its SEC schedule. The Crimson Tide start SEC play on the road in a three-game series at No. 14 Arkansas before returning home to play another series against No. 4 Ole Miss. The next weekend Alabama hosts No. 19 Tennessee before taking a trip the following weekend to Texas A&M.
To close out the season later on, Alabama must travel to No. 6 Vanderbilt and No. 10 LSU before returning home to close the season out against No. 8 Mississippi State. It’s truly a schedule that any team, not just the Crimson Tide, would struggle to deal with.
That being said, there is a lot of baseball to be played, with each game proving as a means for Alabama baseball to establish winning ways. However, a trip to the Crimson Tide’s first SEC Tournament since 2016 will not be an easy one.
