Which Alabama Baseball Pitchers Are Candidates to be Third Weekend Starter?

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— Alabama baseball had a lot to smile about over the offseason regarding its 2026 pitchers, as 2025 weekend starters Zane Adams and Tyler Fay will be back with the Crimson Tide when the regular season begins next month against Washington State. It is not, however, certain which pitcher will follow Fay and Adams as the third rotation piece on weekends.

"[We're] returning two of the three that have done it. I think Zane and Fay is a heck of a place to start when you start looking at that rotation," head coach Rob Vaughn said on Tuesday. "As you look to the next guy, or the other guy in there, I think there's a ton of options."

One player that has stood out is rising junior Matthew Heiberger, a relief staple over the past two seasons who has pitched a lot of high-leverage innings in his career. Heiberger was 3-1 in 25 appearances with a 4.46 earned run average as a sophomore. He started games in the Cape Cod League over the summer and was quite effective, and plenty of SEC experience is also under his belt.

"Matty's got the competitive gene. He's done it. He did it in the Cape. He's got a lot of the intangibles as a competitor that we love," Vaughn said. "It's a little bit of, where is he best? Is he best in that role? Is he best kinda being that fireman out of the bullpen that he's been? It's kinda, both for him personally and for our team, what fits best?"

If Heiberger does not get the nod to begin the season as the third starter, the pitching depth doesn't drop off after him in such a way that there are no other options at that spot. Vaughn named more than one freshman among the candidates, including a 2025 MLB Draft selection who chose to come to school.

"Myles Upchurch and Luke Smyers, they're gonna be the face of this pitching staff as we move into next year and we start losing some guys," he said. "I think you have two young, budding superstars right there that I think, if you look up, would not shock me to be that third guy."

Vaughn also said the team needs to ensure it can be solid on the mound during its midweeks. The Crimson Tide did not drop a single midweek game last season. He further listed dark horses to start games, not necessarily just in midweeks, including 2025 starters JT Blackwood and Bobby Alcock. Alcock began the 2025 campaign in the weekend rotation. Hagan Banks, entering his final year of eligibility, was a starter before a 2024 injury. Austin Morris has been a reliever both years during his college career but has added a kick-change that is lethal against left-handed batters.

Starting rotations in college baseball often do change over the course of the season, whether due to performance, out of necessity or both. A case-in-point scenario on that front is Fay, who was inserted into the weekend mix last April against Mississippi State and went on to pitch substantially better as a starter than as a reliever, finishing 2025 with a 4.69 ERA in 55.2 innings. Adams was 7-4 with a 5.54 ERA, and all but one of his appearances came in the form of a start.

"There's a ton of guys that I think could start any of the three days. I think it's been really fun, the competition side of it, especially with me and Zane," Fay said Tuesday. "Every time we throw a bullpen, we're texting each other about whatever. Like, how hard we're throwing, or what our stuff looked like, so I think it's kinda fun having five or six guys, in my opinion, that can fill that role."

Now that he's firmly entrenched as a weekend starter, Fay's process building up to the season has undergone changes, with an eye toward maintaining that position in the starting rotation and elevating his game to be among the toughest at-bats in college baseball's premier conference.

"It's been a little bit different, confidence-wise, for me. I've been preparing in a little bit different way than I did last year," Fay, now a redshirt junior, said. "Last year, I was trying to earn the starting spot. This year, I'm obviously doing the same thing, but also preparing to earn [being] one of the top weekend guys in the league. That's kinda my goal for this year. I think that's the biggest difference for me."

Vaughn's hope is that the team's pitching situation organically works itself out. In an ideal world, that's with everybody healthy. In any case, the team has multiple viable arms in its pitching staff that can put the Crimson Tide in a position to win games.

"The three you see against Washington State may not be the three against Kentucky to start SEC play," Vaughn said. "Depending on success, depending on a lot of different factors. But, I think we're in a fortunate spot."

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