After an 11-Month Hiatus, Alabama Baseball and Brad Bohannon are Ready for Competition
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama baseball is in the midst of spring practices with less than two weeks before it is slated to open its 2021 season against McNeese State on Feb. 19 in Sewell-Thomas Stadium.
The Crimson Tide were off to a historic 16-1 start to the season in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the season just days before the team was scheduled to open Southeastern Conference play against Missouri.
After months of spending time apart, absent from the baseball diamond that brought the team together, the roster and coaches were reunited last fall for practices and are now just days away from playing baseball against another team for the first time in almost 11 months.
In an exclusive interview with Bama Central on the All Things Bama Podcast, Alabama coach Brad Bohannon expressed his feelings when he was initially allowed to reunite with his players last fall.
“It was darn near euphoric, man,” Bohannon chuckled. “It was awesome. None of us knew what the pandemic was. We didn’t know how long it was going to last or how serious it has turned out to be and, you know, I’ve used the word ‘traumatic’ when our season was canceled last year and I feel like a loser having used that word. I mean, there’s just hundreds of thousands of people dying and I’m talking about a baseball season being canceled as being traumatic.
“You know, baseball is a big part of our lives and it’s a huge piece of my life and our players and having the opportunity to get back together, it meant a lot to all of us and now that we have the opportunity to build our team and be in a competitive environment against another group is really, really exciting.”
The Crimson Tide brings in 19 freshmen this season — combining those that are new to the team along with players that were freshmen last season but had their season cut short and elected for the additional year of eligibility that was granted by the NCAA.
Combine those freshmen with key returners such as redshirt-sophomore catcher Sam Praytor, sophomore infielder Drew Williamson and sophomore outfielder T.J. Reeves, and this young Alabma team is poised to pick up where it left off at the end of last year.
“This group is very serious about baseball,” Bohannon said. “We have a lot of guys that view themselves as future professionals. They’re very determined to win and be in the postseason so they’ve really practiced well. [I’ve] been very pleased with the way the team has prepared and we’ll be ready on Feb. 19th.
“[It] doesn’t mean we’ll be perfect, but we’ll be ready to play.”
The process of college athletics has been dramatically changed due to the pandemic. Multitudes of COVID-19 tests were conducted during the 2020 college football season and the ongoing basketball season to ensure the health of the players as well as coaches and staff among others.
Alabama football even conducted daily tests for its players to ensure the safety of everyone in the facility.
Bohannon said that he and his team feel comfortable with the guidelines mandated by both the NCAA and the SEC, and that following those guidelines will go a long way in helping his team conduct a safe and healthy season.
“Well we have a million rules and regulations that I think normally could have been frustrating but our guys — the positive of the pandemic of having so much time off [in] late spring and over the summer — our guys were so excited to be together and to be on the field and just so thankful to have the opportunity to be able to play so all of those things have just become the norm,” Bohannon said. “Our kids have done a great job with it. They’ve practiced well, they’ve really managed COVID well. I think they’re making good decisions and we really haven’t had any issues of kids catching it at our facility so as long as they make good decisions away from the field for the most part it’s been positive.”
Routine testing has been a key factor in college athletics since the start of the pandemic, and it will be just the same for college baseball.
As of right now, Bohannon said that his team is testing once a week during the preseason but will soon be testing more frequently as the season begins.
“Right now we’re once a week and once the games start, you know, there’s different rules,” Bohannon said. “So it’ll be two to three times a week once the season starts kinda depending on the game schedule. That’s dictated once the games start especially the league play is dictated by the conference. I think we’re all very comfortable that there’s tremendous leadership here within Alabama athletics and from the Southeastern Conference and we all feel safe.”
Having not played against outside competition since early March of last year, one would think that Bohannon would be concerned with his players only being able to compete against each other. While that might sound logical, the same occurs every offseason, just with less time in-between action.
According to Bohannon, baseball is a sport that you become better at by simply playing the game. With so much time off the field, Bohannon admitted that he was worried heading into last year’s fall practices, saying that he didn’t know what to expect when the players made their return to campus. However, he was pleased to see upon is players’ return the the diamond that everyone was in shape and ready to go.
Now comes the task of preparing for competition. The SEC is composed of some of the best teams in the country, and Alabama’s division — the SEC West — is widely considered to be the toughest division in college baseball. Alabama is ranked No. 25 in Baseball America’s preseason rankings, but the Crimson Tide still has a long way to go if it wants to be playing baseball in June.
For now, Bohannon is focused on getting his players ready for competition. For the Crimson Tide, that starts with preparing for McNeese State.
“You must be talking to some of our players because they just roll their eyes because I tell them all the time ‘You get better at playing baseball by playing baseball’,” Bohannon grinned. “Working on your swing and working on your pitches and you delivery, I use the term ‘training’. There’s a huge overlap and correlation between training and playing the game, but it’s not absolute. Our kids are really good at training and they like to train and it’s really, really important. Well, now you gotta take that training and you gotta be really, really good at playing the game and winning the game.
“The game isn’t decided by a radar gun of who throws the ball the hardest or the most consistent launch angle or exit velocity — those things matter and they are important but we gotta play the game. In our fall workouts and our preseason it’s been a little sloppy to be quite honest. We’re not making the other team earn every 90 feet or every base that they get and that’s what we’ve got to improve upon between now and opening day and throughout the season if we want to be playing in June.”
Alabama will open the 2021 season on Feb. 19 against McNeese State in Sewell-Thomas Stadium. The first-pitch time and television network have yet to be announced.
Now, just days before the season, Bohannon said that he and his team are excited to play against some competition that isn’t composed of their own players.
“It’s finally here,” Bohannon said. “I know what a five-year-old feels like on December the 23rd now. Our kids are so excited. We’ve practiced a lot the last six months with a lot of uncertainty and it’s just nice to have the closure of knowing exactly what our season’s going to be and when it’s going to start and I think we’re all just so excited to get out there and compete against another team and see what we look like on February the 19th.”
