SEC baseball tournament preview: How the Crimson Tide drew the No. 9 seed

May 22, 2023

WVUA 23 Digital,

Alabama baseball player Andrew Pinckney (21) celebrates a homerun against Texas A&M at Blue Bell Park in College Station, Texas, on Sunday, May 14, 2023.

By WVUA 23 Digital Reporter Peyton Davis

HOOVER – The regular season has come to a close for NCAA baseball, and SEC tournament play gets under way Tuesday morning from Hoover Metropolitan Stadium less than an hour’s drive from Tuscaloosa. The Alabama Crimson Tide finished the season 38-17 (the most wins since 2006) and 16-14 in conference play (most wins since 2009), winning their last three series and nine of their last 11 games after head coach Bo Bohannon departed from the program under a gambling controversy.

Despite the positive momentum and regular season success, the Tide is slotted in as the No. 9 seed in the conference tournament, an overall testament to just how competitive the conference has been this year.

Alabama is slotted to face 25th-ranked Kentucky Wildcats at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in a game that will decide who faces the No. 1 seed and second-ranked team in the country, the Florida Gators. Kentucky and Alabama last faced off in Tuscaloosa in late March, and although Kentucky took two out of three games that weekend, this is a different Crimson Tide team now that Jason Jackson took over head coaching duties.

If Bama plays well, they’ll be in position to host a regional in tournament play. The latest projections has the Tide barely missing that opportunity, slotting in as the No. 2 seed in the Durham Regional hosted by the 15th seeded Duke Blue Devils. As of now, the latest polls have Alabama slotted as the 24th-ranked team nationally, meaning the Tide needs multiple wins in Hoover to climb into the Top 16.

The SEC finished regular season play with eight teams ranked in the Top 25, according to d1baseball.com’s latest polls. This week’s tournament is as tight of a field as it has been in years with no clear favorite, as Alabama looks to ride the momentum it’s built to a deep run this year after a third round exit as the No. 11 seed in 2022.