Alabama Baseball Motivated to Win in Postseason, Regional Host or Not

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— The next time the Alabama baseball team takes the field for a game, it will be in an NCAA Tournament regional for the third consecutive season. The path to this year's College World Series in Omaha will only exist for 64 clubs upon completion of the nation's conference tournaments.

Alabama (41-16) is in play to be a regional host but lost the inside track with a series defeat last weekend and a second-round SEC Tournament exit on Wednesday. Its chances of hosting are small. Motivation for postseason play, regardless of location, is not.

"I think teams are motivated in different ways," Crimson Tide head coach Rob Vaughn said Monday. "That's part of trying to understand your guys, and what motivates them, is the fight for one more day together? Is that the play with this group?

"Is it, 'Hey boys, let's show up and be us another day and us is good enough,' and walk into that?"

Vaughn, whose 2024 Crimson Tide team went 0-2 in the Tallahassee Regional, understands that motivation is varied among players with regard to what circumstances bring out the best in them. For some, the upcoming postseason represents their final college baseball games.

"Probably player for player, [they're] motivated a little bit different," Vaughn said. "There's probably some guys that embrace that back-against-the-wall, must-win mentality... There's some other players that maybe that makes the game too big for them, and they can't function as much."

Team captain Kade Snell, one of the best hitters in the SEC, is in that group of players who will not get another shot at college ball if Alabama does not make it to Omaha for the first time this century. So is closer Carson Ozmer, who set a new program record for single season saves.

"I know I'm speaking selfishly, and I can kinda speak for Oz. This is our last bit of college baseball," Snell said Monday. "I'm gonna try my hardest, personally, to extend that for as long as I can. I know he's gonna do the exact same thing."

The Crimson Tide head coach said he is of the mind that his group's motivations lie somewhere in the middle of the two extremes he described. This team wants to win big, whether it hosts a regional in Tuscaloosa or not; that specific avenue is unlikely.

"The teams that play freest, even the ones that play with some desperation and urgency, as long as they play completely unafraid to crash and burn, man, let's roll," Vaughn said. "That has to be us. We just can't be afraid of the future. You can't be afraid of what comes next. You've gotta step into it."

Alabama's hosting fate is set to finally be determined this Sunday. If it is not selected as one of those 16 teams, the Crimson Tide will find out whose ballpark it travels to for regionals a day later, on Monday.

"If we're hosting a regional or going somewhere for a regional, it's not going to matter, we're still just going to show up and do what we do," center fielder Richie Bonomolo Jr. said Wednesday.