Nothing comes easy for or against the Alabama baseball team. It’s the story of coach Mitch Gaspard’s seven-year tenure.
As usual, the Crimson Tide battled from the first pitch to the last out Thursday in an SEC Tournament elimination game against Florida.
As has been the case too often for the taste of Alabama fans, their team came up just short in a 5-4 defeat, and now comes the long wait for the NCAA Tournament selection show Monday.
This could’ve been the end of the season.
Could it also be the end of an era?
It seems foolish to talk about a potential coaching change after a one-run loss to the No. 1 team in the nation. This was Alabama’s sixth one-run loss of the season to a ranked team, and it’s important to remember that this team was picked to finish last in the SEC West in a preseason poll of the league’s coaches with the fewest votes of any team in either division.
Gaspard and company exceeded those low expectations by earning the No. 9 seed in the SEC Tournament and reaching the NCAA Tournament bubble with an overall record of 32-26 and a 16-17 record against SEC teams. They won series against top-10 teams LSU and Ole Miss, and they added single wins against top-10 teams Texas A&M and Mississippi State.
They were the last team to beat regular-season champ Mississippi State heading into Thursday’s late game between the Bulldogs and LSU.
Ask almost anyone who knows almost anything about college baseball, and they’ll tell you 16 wins against teams in the No. 1 league in the land makes you worthy of an NCAA bid. State coach John Cohen made a strong case for Alabama after his team beat the Tide 4-1 Wednesday.
But if you’re examining the big picture, it’s important to note that Alabama has finished the regular season with a winning SEC record just once under Gaspard, and that was a 15-14 mark in 2014. His teams have never been seeded higher than No. 7 in the SEC Tournament, have made it to the finals in Hoover only once – in Gaspard’s first season in 2010 – and haven’t won the tournament.
If the Tide does make the NCAA field, it would have to be considered an upset if it wins a regional to reach a super regional for the first time since Gaspard’s first year.
When this season finally does end, Alabama AD Bill Battle will have to ask himself some hard questions. What does he want from his baseball program? What does he expect now that the facilities’ deficit has been addressed with the gorgeous reconstruction of The Joe? Is Gaspard the man to reach those goals?
Baseball is a different animal, and it’s more difficult to win big in this state in that sport than it is in other SEC states, but the high standard set by the rest of the Alabama athletics department doesn’t help Gaspard.
Nick Saban’s football team is coming off its fourth national championship in the last seven years. Pat Murphy’s softball team will begin a super regional at home Friday after winning its 12th straight regional, the longest active streak in the nation. Jay Seawell’s men’s golf team, which won national titles in 2013 and 2014, starts play Friday at the NCAA Championships.
That’s just to name a few of the Crimson Tide programs competing on a national level. Can Alabama baseball get back there against conference competition that may be stronger than the Tide faces in any other sport?
All things considered, this year’s team has overachieved, and this season may not be done. But no matter what the NCAA Tournament verdict is Monday, the questions about Gaspard’s ability to lift this program from good to great will continue.
