Alabama Pitching Staff Key to Deep Postseason Run

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — With Alabama's eyes dead set on a trip to the SEC tournament championship and a trip to Omaha, the Crimson Tide is looking to make noise throughout college baseball in the postseason.

To make a run, Alabama will turn to its pitching staff, namely the weekend rotation of Tyler Fay, Zane Adams, and Myles Upchurch, to lead the charge through Hoover and potentially to Omaha.

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"The starting pitching has been our constant," said Alabama head coach Rob Vaughn before the SEC tournament, "that's what has been great for us."

And the stats back up Vaughn's statement: all three of Alabama's starters finished in the top 25 in the SEC in ERA and innings pitched, while being the only SEC team to feature the same weekend rotation in all 10 series of league play — one of only two Power Four teams (Purdue) to do so.

Two of Alabama's starters earned places on All-SEC teams, with Upchurch landing on the All-Freshman team after posting a 3.34 ERA in his rookie campaign, and Fay on the All-SEC second team after picking up a career-high 99 strikeouts and a 4.43 ERA.

While going without a regular-season accolade, Adams did his fair share for the Crimson Tide, posting a career-best 4.36 ERA and 86 strikeouts across 76.1 innings.

"The value of high-end starting pitching has just carried us this year. Everybody knows that. " It's been the constant," said Alabama head coach Rob Vaughn on Tuesday ahead of the SEC tournament, "It's rare. It's very, very rare that you have three guys toe the rubber, and the amount of quality starts this year [...] every game you're looking up, and they're still in the game in the sixth inning. It's allowed us to overcome, at times, an offense that has sputtered. allowed us to overcome defense that has sputtered sometimes,"

The Crimson Tide's pitching staff isn't just elite because of the starting rotation; the bullpen has also been stellar down the stretch as well.

Vaughn continued, "It's allowed that bullpen to stay fresh. Guys like Matt [Matthew] Heiberger, Hagan Banks, and Ashton Crowther, we get really good versions of them every time."

The bullpen trio of Heiberger, Crowther, and Banks emerged out of an off-season of questions surrounding the bullpen, and through a season without the preseason de facto closer, Kaden Humphrey, who went down early in the season with Tommy John Surgery, have been stellar.

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Matthew Heiberger and Ashton Crowther eat up extended innings for the Crimson Tide, operating as a bridge to the closer Hagan Banks, to then close out games.

The bullpen trio holds the lowest three ERAs amongst qualified relievers on the team, with Crowther at 1.74, Banks at 2.79, and Heiberger at 3.18.

If the Crimson Tide wants to make a run at an SEC tournament title and a potential trip to Omaha, the pitching will be the calling card along the way.

For more Alabama Baseball, Basketball, and Football content from Simon Besnoy, follow him on Twitter at @SimonBesnoy and stay tuned to Tide1009.com for daily news.