Alabama Baseball's Rob Vaughn Teases New-Look 'Pack' Offense for 2025 Season

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— The Alabama baseball team had its first official spring practice on Friday, signifying the home stretch of the offseason and the official regular season schedule being right around the corner.

What that means for Crimson Tide head coach Rob Vaughn is his second season at the helm of a program which has now made two straight NCAA Tournament appearances and three in four years. One of the things he brought with him to Tuscaloosa is a "pack" mindset on offense, wherein the batting order complements its respective components and takes a team approach to mixing up how it gets runs across.

Last year, it worked well even with a ballclub that didn't steal a lot of bases (former outfielder TJ McCants, who's since turned pro, becoming a bona fide power threat had a bit to do with that). That part of Alabama's game will change this year. Vaughn expects this team to run more. He also believes that for this second go-around, the difference in personnel will create something not exactly alike to last year's approach. The Crimson Tide will once again be undergoing some big changes in the everyday lineup, not unlike Vaughn's maiden voyage in 2024.

"Last year, we referred to them as bombers. We had a lot of that. We had a lot of guys that could just kind of stand up and hit. We hit some homers," Vaughn said on Friday. "Not to go to the other extreme. Don't get me wrong. I want to slug the baseball. I think the best teams slug, so we want to do that, but we had to be able to do some different things too... Stolen bases wasn't a part of the game. We were kind of a station-to-station offense."

Impacting the ball was a strength of the 2024 Crimson Tide, but some of that power has gone on to the professional ranks, including McCants, slugging third baseman Gage Miller and left fielder Ian Petrutz. Alabama's entire opening-day outfield from Vaughn's debut season, in fact, will not return, though the team has high hopes for transfer Bryce Fowler, a former Southern Miss Golden Eagle, in that department. Miller was a revelation as a junior-college transfer after a breakout fall and wound up going from that to leading an SEC team in home runs while hitting out of the leadoff spot. The new additions, however, are solid, including multiple with Power Four and NCAA Tournament experience.

They include (while not being limited to) a very good and experienced player to man the hot corner in Samford transfer Garrett Staton (career-best .319 batting average with 19 each of doubles and home runs in 2024), ex-LSU catcher Brady Neal (joining the program after the departure of leadership piece Mac Guscette) and Miami transfer infielder Jason Torres, who made the midseason watchlist for the Golden Spikes Award last year. That's even before considering the new freshmen who could make a splash, akin to Justin Lebron this past spring and summer.

Among the names which do return from a season ago, sophomore shortstop Lebron is one of the headliners; the All-SEC infielder put up a double-digit home run total in his freshman campaign with a .338 average. Outfielder Kade Snell, recently honored with the team captaincy and the jersey No. 3 for 2025, hit .324 in 40 games as a two-way player (a role that might just be tailor-made for freshman Andre Modugno in the future) a season ago.

Those two aren't the only ones returning. For example, Will Hodo, who is entering his senior season and took over for Drew Williamson at first base, led the Crimson Tide in walks last season. He and Petrutz could both get on base; the latter was hit by more pitches than anyone else on the team. Petrutz is now in the St. Louis Cardinals organization, but Hodo's ambitions are for a big senior year, and when it comes to doing more than just hitting home runs, he checks that box. Hodo can mash, though- he hit 12 doubles and 11 big flies last year.

"That's what I like about this group. I think we have some different ways we can score," Vaughn said. "That's kind of the idea of the pack: Knowing who you are, and the strength of me is doing my job in this moment, but the strength of me is [also] my boys around me helping me function within this... We have some distinct different roles in this. We have the burners. We have some bombers. We have some hitters. We've got some good old ballplayers that can go compete with it. You're gonna see the pack, I think, function a little more, just due to the personnel this year, the way that we intend for it to function.

I'm excited about it."