With Its Backs Against a Wall, Alabama Baseball Seeks Rally at NCAA Tournament

On Saturday, it’s win or go home for Alabama baseball.

The Crimson Tide has experienced the ‘do-or-die’ scenario twice this season, both at last week’s SEC Tournament. In its opening-round matchup against No. 24 South Carolina, the Crimson Tide deftly handled the Gamecocks 9-3. In its last game against No. 4 Tennessee in the tournament, though, Alabama fell 11-0 in seven innings.

In a way, those two games say a lot about this year’s Crimson Tide team. On some days, Alabama baseball looks like a team that, given the proper circumstances, could best most teams in the country. It’s 16-1 victory over No. 1 Arkansas back in March is a prime example of that. On other days, it looks quite the opposite.

On Friday in its first game at an NCAA Regional since 2014, No. 3 seed Alabama fell to No. 2 seed NC State 8-1, giving up five home runs in the process. The loss was a combination of quiet bats and poor performances all around on the mound, culminating in a loss that sent the Crimson Tide straight to the losers' bracket and up for elimination.

Head coach Brad Bohannon let his sentiments on his team’s performance be known after the game.

“Honestly a little disappointed,” Bohannon said. “Kind of felt like our guys played today like they were just glad to be here. Really haven’t done that much.”

However, Saturday presents one final opportunity for the Crimson Tide to find its rhythm.

In Game 2 of the Ruston Regional, No. 1 seed Louisiana Tech crushed No. 4 seed Rider 18-2, sending the Broncs to a matchup with Alabama. While this season has been riddled with disappointments for the Crimson Tide, Saturday’s elimination game against Rider (2 p.m. CT, ESPN3) provides the team with one final opportunity to prove to a skeptical college baseball fandom that it deserved a spot in the tournament.

The first thing that Alabama has to correct is its starting pitching. Tyler Ras and Dylan Smith have been the two primary starters this season due to season-ending injuries to Connor Prielipp and Antoine Jean. While both have performed admirably this season, both were expected to be primarily utilized in midweek games, not on weekends.

Ras’ performance in Game 1 was disappointing, but you also have to consider the amount of pressure that the young man has been under this season being the regular Friday starter on a team that was expected to have a greater mound presence.

Bohannon suggested that it will be Smith’s turn on the rubber against the Broncs, although at first he was slightly hesitant at fully committing to the junior.

“I was planning to win today so I really didn’t put any thought into if we didn’t win today so if we had won, Dylan’s definitely going to pitch,” Bohannon said after the loss to the Wolfpack. “That’s tough. You can’t really think about trying to win three games in the next two days but you do want to play to win it.

“Finishing second does nothing. But you also don’t want to leave here without one of your best starters pitching. We’ll look at the matchup of whoever we’re playing and make that call but good, strong likelihood that Dylan will start tomorrow.”

One bright side to Friday’s loss was that the Crimson Tide didn’t delve too deeply into its shallow bullpen. Along with Ras, relievers Will Freeman and Brock Guffey were the only two pitchers utilized.

Bohannon, usually infectiously optimistic, didn’t seem that pleased with the situation.

“When you lose, you’re potentially looking at potentially playing four games in three days starting tomorrow, so Freeman and Guffey, kind of the reason we use those two guys is they bounce back very well,” Bohannon said. “Will won’t pitch tomorrow but he’ll be good for Sunday. He’s done this a lot in the last five or six weeks and has been really sharp the second time that he’s pitched — maybe even better than the first time. Brock did throw a lot of pitches, so again we just got to win the game tomorrow but we’ll be fine to cover the innings and should be competitive on the mound for the next two or three games.

Bohannon then confirmed that Smith will be starting against Rider.

“Obviously Dylan’s going to start,” Bohannon said. “We’ve got some really good guys that we haven’t used and Will and Guffey will be available Sunday for sure so that’s the least of my worries right now.”

With its backs against the wall and the season on the line, Alabama baseball finds itself once again in a tricky situation. While Smith has performed relatively well on the mound this year despite his 1-8 record, it has been the run production from the offense that has been the main issue — something completely out of his control.

Against Rider, Alabama will need to focus on playing small ball. Get men on base at the top of the lineup, drive them in with the cleanup crew and hope for the best. A win is certainly possible, but it all depends on which Crimson Tide team shows up on Saturday.

Should it not be able to pull off the victory, then Alabama will earn itself a long, quiet bus ride back to Tuscaloosa.

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