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.
