Alabama head coach Rob Vaughn isn’t allowing postseason pressure to affect the Crimson Tide. Ahead of Alabama’s matchup against South Carolina in the opening round of the SEC Tournament, Vaughn revealed his pregame message to his team.
“It’s a big game for us, just no different than Saturday at Auburn was,” Vaughn said on the SEC Network. “We’re guaranteed one more game together. But, I think the biggest thing is you just can’t make this bigger than it is. You start playing tight, you start getting into that, ‘I have to do this. We got to do this.’ We just need to go out and play good baseball.
“We get a good start from [LHP] Greg Farone, we execute offensively, you give yourself a chance. That’s what you’re looking for. Just go out and play our game and if we go down playing our game, I can live with that. We’ll wait and see what happens. But, more times than not when we go about our business the way we do, we give ourselves a pretty good chance.”
It’s a single-elimination showdown for Alabama. If the Crimson Tide lose, their season could come to an end. With a 33-21 overall record and 13-17 mark in conference play, Alabama is currently a bubble team in the NCAA Tournament.
Alabama went 2-1 against South Carolina during the regular season, collectively outscoring the Gamecocks 25-18. Alabama starting pitcher Greg Farone will look to limit South Carolina’s scoring once again on Tuesday.
Rob Vaughn emphasizes importance of pitching
Ahead of the pivotal matchup, Vaughn revealed his expectations for Farone.
“Your starting pitcher really sets the tone especially as a home team,” Vaughn said. “Greg’s gonna go out there and and get the first three outs against some pretty dang good hitters coming out of South Carolina dugout over there.
“We’re just going to take it an inning at a time and see how he feels. Obviously, he threw for us last Thursday. He’s been our guy. We’ve relied on him in big spots and we’re going to take it an inning at time with him and see what happens.”
The two teams will square off at approximately 2:30 p.m. ET in the Hoover Metropolitan Complex, the former home of the Double-A Birmingham Barons. The game will be broadcast on the SEC Network. The winner of the game will face off against No. 2 seed Arkansas tomorrow.
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