Alabama Baseball Pitcher Bobby Alcock 'Deserved' Opportunity to Start Opening Weekend

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— When the 2023 Big South Pitcher of the Year arrived at Alabama last season, he had to overcome a lot to get where he is now: being named to the weekend rotation for the Crimson Tide's opening series this season against Bradley.

Redshirt senior Bobby Alcock did it, though, and when he finally toes the rubber for the first time in Tuscaloosa this weekend after not playing last spring, it will be as the Sunday starter.

"Bobby Alcock's just such an awesome story," Crimson Tide head coach Rob Vaughn said Thursday. "Came here from Gardner-Webb, threw a lot of innings; one of the things that drew us to him was, man, he just toed the rubber all the time for them."

The righty got hurt in 2024, scuttling his plans to make an impact on the field in the first year of Vaughn's tenure at Alabama. However, the manner in which he saw his road back through convinced the coaching staff that he earned the ball on opening weekend.

"Bobby battled through some stuff," Vaughn said. "It's not the same guy. It is a different human... his body is in the best shape I've ever seen him in. He just attacked the rehab. He attacked everything. Shoot, he was on the dean's list... The way he's gone about his stuff has just been really impressive."

At Gardner-Webb in 2023, Alcock (a first team all-conference honoree) led the conference with a 2.51 earned run average, throwing 89.2 innings and recording over 10 strikeouts per nine innings. There's plenty about his numbers to suggest future success; his ERA in 2022 was 2.08 in three starts before he redshirted.

"It was a hard decision on who to kinda run out there on Sunday," Vaughn said. "Bob, we thought, deserved it. He's experienced. He's done it at this level a lot."

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