Alabama's Practice Changes to Fix Season-Long Error Issues

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - After struggling with errors during the regular season, Alabama baseball had an error-free weekend as the Crimson Tide secured the four-seed in the SEC baseball tournament this week in Hoover after taking the regular season finale against Ole Miss, with victories in game one and game three.

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Alabama's 72 errors this season, led by shortstop Justin Lebron with a career-high 17, are the most for the Crimson Tide since 2018, when they had 65. Alabama's opponents have only made 50 fielding errors this season. It was refreshing for fans to see the Crimson Tide take a series and commit no errors, with head coach Rob Vaughn detailing some of the changes the Crimson Tide made to practice to simulate in-game hits that have caused headaches for Alabama's fielders.

"You're trying to simulate game reps as much as possible," Vaughn told the media on Tuesday afternoon. "Every infield coach - you get guys out there fumbling over ground balls and this and that. There's a big difference in - and [Tyler Fay] alluded to how good these hitters are in this league - there's a big difference in Garrett Wood hitting a fungo, coming off at about 65 (mph), beautiful, backspin ground ball, and a dude stepping up and topspinning 108 at you. It's just a big difference.

"Trying to just create more game-like reps for them without tearing them down," Vaughn continued. "You're also trying to balance - their bodies are beat up this time of year - so trying to keep them fresh but create game-like stuff. It's just a lot more live-type stuff, doing live stuff off the bat... You can do it out of a machine, too, but that doesn't replicate consistently being on time. That's one thing we've stressed a lot to the infielders. A lot of times, some of our mistakes have just been late; we're just late getting to a good position. That first step is late, then we're getting the wrong hop, getting the in-between hop, so that's the beauty: the more random we can make it, the more you can simulate some game-like stuff."

After Alabama's strong showing in fielding against Ole Miss, the Crimson Tide had five days off to prepare for the SEC Tournament, but the rest is a double-edged sword. The Crimson Tide's bats have been hot lately, but will almost a week off cool the red-hot Crimson Tide?

Alabama will face Florida in the Crimson Tide's first appearance in the 2026 SEC tournament on Thursday, May 21, at 7:00 p.m. CT at the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in Hoover, Alabama. The game will be broadcast on the Crimson Tide Sports Network and on the SEC Network.

Alabama swept Florida during a regular-season series, but has lost five consecutive matchups with the Gators in Hoover, dating back to 2011.

Wyatt Fulton is the Tide 100.9 DME and Brand Manager, primarily covering Alabama Crimson Tide football and men's basketball. For more Crimson Tide coverage, follow Wyatt on X (Formerly known as Twitter) at @FultonW_.