Alabama Baseball 2021 SEC Tournament Preview
HOOVER, Ala. — On Tuesday, it's do or die for Alabama baseball.
After a season that has experienced as many emotional highs as it has lows, the No. 10-seed Crimson Tide will be taking on No. 7-seed South Carolina in the opening round of the 2021 SEC Tournament. While just several weeks ago Alabama was in the middle of the pack in the conference, three-consecutive weekends of series losses forced the Crimson Tide to drop from one of the league's mid-tier positions down to 10th — along with decreasing the team's NCAA Regional chances.
It didn't help that Alabama's opponents were No. 2 Vanderbilt, LSU and No. 6 Mississippi State.
“It has been a tough last three weeks,” Alabama coach Brad Bohannon said. “But, man, tough schedule — but we’ve talked a lot in these last couple of weeks about what we need to do to make a regional and all that. Now our mindset is ‘Hey, this is our postseason and we just have to win the first inning tomorrow.”
Should Alabama win on Tuesday, the team would advance to the double-elimination portion of the tournament through Thursday. The advancement would dramatically increase the Crimson Tide's chances of making an NCAA Regional. Currently, the team is listed as one of the first four teams out in most projections.
“Tomorrow it’s do or die,” Bohannon said. “It’s do whatever we can to win the game tomorrow and then grab a bite to eat and enjoy the win for a little bit hopefully and then worry about Wednesday after tomorrow night’s meal.”
Alabama's appearance in Hoover is a first for the team since 2016 as well as the first time for Bohannon as a head coach in the conference. The Crimson Tide's last tournament victory was all the way back in 2003, the second of back-to-back SEC championship years for the team.
While Alabama hopes to make an impact from the get-go, it will be an arduous task should South Carolina has anything to say about it.
The Gamecocks closed out the regular season with an overall record of 33-20 and a 16-14 record in SEC play. The team's offense is led by stellar designated hitter Wes Clarke, whose 21 home runs are tied for second-best in college baseball. On the mound, right-handed pitcher Will Sanders finished the regular season with a record of 6-3 and allowed 23 runs on the year in 21 appearances with an ERA of 3.63.
As of Tuesday morning, South Carolina had yet to name a starting pitcher, but Bohannon knows who he will use on Tuesday.
During Saturday's season finale against Mississippi State, starting pitcher Tyler Ras approached Bohannon in the dugout with a request.
"Coach, you've got to start me on Tuesday," Ras said, according to Bohannon.
"You know what, [Ras], I do," Bohannon chuckled.
Ras started out the season in the midweek rotation. However, injuries to Preseason First Team All-American Connor Prielipp and Sunday starter Antoine Jean moved Ras up to its regular Friday starter. Ras had his ups and downs, finishing the regular season with a 6-4 record and a 5.42 ERA. While you would typically want better numbers from a Friday starter, one has to remember the circumstances that brought him to that position.
Along with Prielipp and Jean, two more Alabama players have experienced injuries that will keep them out of Hoover. On Monday, Bohannon announced that first basemen Drew Williamson and Davis Heller will both be out due to a broken hamate bone and a torn hamstring, respectively. Their absence will weaken the team's defense on the entire infield, as it has forced regular third baseman Zane Denton to shift over to first, shortstop Jim Jarvis to move to third and Bryce Eblin to fill in at short.
Injuries aside, it's still win or go home for Alabama baseball. While the team's overall 12-17 SEC record is still an improvement over the last couple of seasons, there is still work to be done with this team in a highly-competitive conference.
“I haven’t really taken a lot of time to reflect,” Bohannon said. “Off the top of my head, I think we’ve gotten better each year. Certainly, we’ve won more games and we’re noticeably more competitive in SEC play this year, which is a real barometer. I think we’ve got a lot of young talent in our program so there are a lot of good things. I’m really proud of the intangibles that we have.”
Should Alabama win on Tuesday, it will move on to face No. 2-seed Tennessee, a team that the Crimson Tide bested once and played two other very close games against. Should it lose, it will be out of the tournament and will likely lose its chances at an NCAA Regional.
The stakes are high, and it all comes down to Tuesday's matchup against South Carolina.
Game Notes
(Courtesy of Alabama Athletics)
Leading Off
• Alabama and South Carolina will meet for the 67th time in series history when the two teams square off on Tuesday afternoon at the Hoover Met. The Gamecocks lead the all-time series, 37-29, but the Tide holds the advantage in neutral site games at 4-2.
• The two teams last met from April 5-6, 2019, in Tuscaloosa, with Alabama claiming a 2-1 series win. The Crimson Tide blanked the Gamecocks in game one of a doubleheader, 9-0, before clinching the series with a 4-1 win on the back-end of the twinbill. South Carolina rallied the next day for a 5-4 win in 12 innings to avoid the sweep.
• Alabama has won two of the three pairings between the two schools in the SEC Tournament. The most recent meeting came in 2009 with SC earning a 9-5 win on May 20. The Tide won the first-ever meeting in Hoover by a score of 6-2 on May 26, 2002 and followed that with a 9-7 win a year later on May 22.
• Alabama will call on junior right-hander Tyler Ras for the Tuesday start. Ras has been the Crimson Tide’s Friday night starter each of the last 13 weekends and owns a 6-4 record with a 5.42 ERA (46 ER/76.1 IP).
About Alabama
• Alabama hosted sixth-ranked Mississippi State this past weekend for the final series of the regular season. The Crimson Tide fell in three hard-fought battles with the Bulldogs to finish the 2021 schedule at 29-22 overall and 12-17 in Southeastern Conference play.
• State’s four run seventh proved to be too much as Alabama fell, 4-2 on Thursday evening at Sewell-Thomas Stadium.
• A pitchers’ duel saw both teams go scoreless until the fifth. That inning featured a solo home run from Jackson Tate to get Alabama on the board first.
• Tyler Ras kept the Bulldogs at bay in the sixth before a four-run top of the seventh gave MSU the lead for good. The Crimson Tide battled for one in the bottom of the seventh and brought the go-ahead run to the plate in the eighth but would not get any closer.
• Ras was solid once again, allowing four runs on seven hits and a walk with three strikeouts across 6.1 innings of work. The junior held State scoreless through the first 6.0 frames, giving up four hits and no walks before running into trouble in the seventh.
• Alabama suffered a 7-0 loss on Friday evening. The Bulldogs were first on the board with a run in the top of the second and added three in the third, two in the fifth and one in the ninth for the series-clinching win.
• The Crimson Tide rallied late on Saturday but was unable to battle back in a 7-3 loss to the Bulldogs.
• Alabama struck early with two in the first and one in the second to build a 3-0 lead. The Tide pitching staff held State off the board until the fifth when MSU scored four to gain the advantage. The Bulldogs then added three more in the top of the sixth to make it a 7-3 ballgame.
• UA did not go quietly, bringing the tying run to the plate in the eighth and reaching a pair of runners in the ninth, but would not pull any closer.
• Alabama received a strong start on Saturday from Jacob McNairy in his first appearance since mid-April. The junior tossed 2.0 scoreless innings with a pair of strikeouts before handing it over to his bullpen. The Tide relievers combined to post a solid effort across the final 7.0 frames, but defensive miscues plagued UA in the middle innings leading to seven runs, only four of which were earned.
About South Carolina
• South Carolina finished the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign at 12-4 overall. SC was riding a five-game winning streak heading to SEC play before the season was officially put on pause.
• Mark Kingston is in his fourth season at South Carolina and owns a 110-78 record in Columbia as part of a 383-257-1 career mark across his 12 seasons as a collegiate head coach. A 1995 graduate of North Carolina, Kingston is joined on staff by assistants Trip Couch, Skylar Meade and Stuart Lake.
• South Carolina was selected to finish fourth in the East and eighth overall in the SEC in the league’s preseason poll, as voted on by the conference’s head coaches.
Back in Hoover
• Alabama returns to SEC Tournament for the first time since 2016 when the Crimson Tide takes on South Carolina on Tuesday afternoon.
• The Tide is 49-43 all-time in the Tournament and will be appearing for a 34th time.
• Alabama holds a 2-1 record against the Gamecocks and owns a winning record against eight of the 11 participating teams in this year’s installment of the Tournament.
On Deck
A win for Alabama would advance the Crimson Tide to the double-elimination portion of the 2021 SEC Tournament. The Tide would pair with #2 seed Tennessee in the second game of the morning session on Wednesday, May 26. A loss would end UA’s time in Hoover with a chance to still play in an NCAA Regional.
