The Alabama baseball team fought through a ton of adversity this season with injuries but still managed to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Tide will be the third seed in the Ruston, LA Regional, joining host Louisiana Tech, 2nd seeded NC State and 4th seeded Rider.
The bid was the Tide program’s first since 2014 when Mitch Gaspard led them to the Tallahassee Regional. Ironically Gaspard is the assistant head coach for La Tech. Adding further to the irony is Alabama head coach Brad Bohannon replaced Greg Goff in Tuscaloosa, and Goff matriculated to the Capstone after being the head coach in Ruston.
The Tide will be playing in their 25th all time NCAA Tournament and has a 70-49 record in the previous 24 trips. The last Alabama team to win a Regional and advance to the Super Regional round was Gaspard’s 2010 team.
Louisiana Tech is the 16th National Seed in this years tournament and the Ruston bracket is matched up with Arkansas’s, meaning the winner of the double elimination tournament will go to Fayetteville to most likely play the top seeded and number one ranked Razorbacks.
Tech has a record of 40-18 while NC State is 30-17, Alabama 31-24 and Rider 23-16. Bama will play NC State at 2 p.m. on Friday, followed by LaTech and Rider at 6 p.m. The two winners will play each other on Saturday as well as the two losers playing an elimination game. Play will continue until the winner is crowned on Sunday.
Roll Tide
Alabama Baseball Fever, Catch it