TUSCALOOSA | Still recovering from the sudden end to the season, Mitch Gaspard sees bright days ahead for his University of Alabama baseball team.
“Quite honestly, this is as good of a roster as we’ve had coming back in a long time,” Gaspard said the day after UA was eliminated from the NCAA Tallahassee Regional. “I think the key for us, and for me as a head coach, is for us to evaluate every area and make sure these kids understand what they have to do to get better. But also for us coaches, too, to see the areas where we can improve.”
Alabama finished the season 35-28 and included season-highlight wins over Vanderbilt and LSU, either ranked No. 1 or No. 2 at the time of the wins.
One area that Gaspard acknowledged must improve is hitting, an area that has plagued the Crimson Tide for three consecutive seasons. Alabama, which hit .259 as a team, showed flashes at the end of the season but struggled for most of the campaign. No player hit above .300, although Brett Booth and Mikey White batted .290 and .287, respectively.
Gaspard said the coaching staff plans to look at every aspect of the program, including hitting.
“I think it’s a combination of things,” Gaspard said. “That’s no different than anything else. We have to evaluate all areas and certainly there are things we feel like we can do better that’s going to help these guys offensively. We’ll make some adjustments with that. Anytime you have four young players in the lineup playing every day, you have to look at where they were and where they came to. I think with all of those guys you saw improvement as we moved through the year. I just thought our offense was too inconsistent. That’s just an area we look hard into in these next three or four months. One area we’d all like to see improve is some more power. That’s not just home runs. That’s doubles too.”
The Crimson Tide must replace a group of seniors that kept the young players together, including catcher Booth, third baseman Kenny Roberts, left fielder Andrew Miller and starting right-handed pitcher Charley Sullivan.
But it’s what’s coming back that excites Gaspard. A freshmen group that includes White, Kyle Overstreet, Georgie Salem, Chance Vincent and Ray Castillo, among others, earned valuable experience that Gaspard hopes will translate into next season.
“With the exception of Charley Sullivan, who did a good job for us, we basically return all of our innings,” Gaspard said. “We’ve got two of our outfielders back. Potentially, with the exception of third base, we’ve got our entire infield back. We’re going to miss Brett, but we’ve got a kid (Wade Wass) who was in our program for the entire year. And we’ve got another good group of freshmen coming in that I think can contribute to the roster. It’s as quality a group contributing to the program as we’ve had in a long time. Add to that, this is as many kids as we’ve ever had going out playing summer ball as well.”
Reach Aaron Suttles at aaron@tidesports.com or at 205-722-0229.
“Quite honestly, this is as good of a roster as we’ve had coming back in a long time,” Gaspard said the day after UA was eliminated from the NCAA Tallahassee Regional. “I think the key for us, and for me as a head coach, is for us to evaluate every area and make sure these kids understand what they have to do to get better. But also for us coaches, too, to see the areas where we can improve.”
Alabama finished the season 35-28 and included season-highlight wins over Vanderbilt and LSU, either ranked No. 1 or No. 2 at the time of the wins.
One area that Gaspard acknowledged must improve is hitting, an area that has plagued the Crimson Tide for three consecutive seasons. Alabama, which hit .259 as a team, showed flashes at the end of the season but struggled for most of the campaign. No player hit above .300, although Brett Booth and Mikey White batted .290 and .287, respectively.
Gaspard said the coaching staff plans to look at every aspect of the program, including hitting.
“I think it’s a combination of things,” Gaspard said. “That’s no different than anything else. We have to evaluate all areas and certainly there are things we feel like we can do better that’s going to help these guys offensively. We’ll make some adjustments with that. Anytime you have four young players in the lineup playing every day, you have to look at where they were and where they came to. I think with all of those guys you saw improvement as we moved through the year. I just thought our offense was too inconsistent. That’s just an area we look hard into in these next three or four months. One area we’d all like to see improve is some more power. That’s not just home runs. That’s doubles too.”
The Crimson Tide must replace a group of seniors that kept the young players together, including catcher Booth, third baseman Kenny Roberts, left fielder Andrew Miller and starting right-handed pitcher Charley Sullivan.
But it’s what’s coming back that excites Gaspard. A freshmen group that includes White, Kyle Overstreet, Georgie Salem, Chance Vincent and Ray Castillo, among others, earned valuable experience that Gaspard hopes will translate into next season.
“With the exception of Charley Sullivan, who did a good job for us, we basically return all of our innings,” Gaspard said. “We’ve got two of our outfielders back. Potentially, with the exception of third base, we’ve got our entire infield back. We’re going to miss Brett, but we’ve got a kid (Wade Wass) who was in our program for the entire year. And we’ve got another good group of freshmen coming in that I think can contribute to the roster. It’s as quality a group contributing to the program as we’ve had in a long time. Add to that, this is as many kids as we’ve ever had going out playing summer ball as well.”
Reach Aaron Suttles at aaron@tidesports.com or at 205-722-0229.
