Tide Heads To Hattiesburg – Roll ‘Bama Roll

The Alabama Crimson Tide baseball team was selected as the number two seed in the Hattiesburg Regional for NCAA Tournament play. The University of Southern Mississippi was given the host spot as the 16th seed and will host 2nd seeded Alabama, 3rd seeded Miami, and 4th seeded Columbia, starting on May 29th. Alabama and USM played once this season with the Tide defeating the Golden Eagles 10-6 in Tuscaloosa on April 8th.

The Tide will take on the Miami Hurricanes in the first game of the tournament at 2 p.m. CT on Friday. The game will be shown on ESPN2. Southern Miss will play Columbia in game two at 6 p.m. The winners will play each other on Saturday, as will the losers. Alabama will be playing in their third straight regional for the first time since the stretch from 2009-2011. This will be the 28th NCAA Tournament appearance in school history. The Tide last advanced to Super Regional play in the 2023 season.

Alabama is 74-55 overall in NCAA Tournament games, and 60-39 in regional action. The Tide has won regionals and advanced to Super Regional play eight times in program history.

Southern Miss is 44-14 on the season, Alabama is 41-16, Miami is 31-24, while Columbia sports a record of 29-17 and is riding a nine game winning streak. The Golden Eagles are hitting .305 as a team with 97 home runs and have a team ERA of 3.91. Alabama has a team batting average of .280 with 91 home runs and 103 doubles, and a team ERA of 5.11. The Hurricanes hit .273 as a team with 68 home runs and 61 stolen bases and their pitching staff has an ERA of 5.03. The Columbia Lions carry a .290 team batting average with 74 home runs while the pitching staff has a 6.57 ERA.

Getting over the disappointment of not hosting is the first thing the Tide must do. Then go down to Hattiesburg and play clean baseball and win the regional. Bama should match up well and have a good chance to survive and advance. The key is to stay out of the losers bracket, so winning game one is the first priority. The question is does coach Rob Vaughn go with Zane Adams, Riley Quick, or Tyler Fay on the mound for game one? The winner of the Hattiesburg Regional is matched up with top seeded Vanderbilt. If Vanderbilt takes care of Wright State, Louisville, and East Tennessee State, they would host the Super Regional round with a chance to go to Omaha on the line.

Roll Tide

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