Alabama baseball coach Rob Vaughn speaks on his team and their first spring practice
TUSCALOOSA— Alabama baseball held its first full-team spring practice under head coach Rob Vaughn on Friday.
With a scrimmage initially scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Friday, the coaching staff moved up the start time to 1:15 p.m. due to potential rain later in the afternoon. The intrasquad scrimmage lasted 6 1/2 innings, with the Crimson Team defeating the Grey Team 10-2.
First baseman Will Hodo (solo home run), outfielder TJ McCants (2 RBI double, solo home run) and outfielder Camden Hayslip (2-run home run) each had strong bats for Crimson. Freshmen left-handers Zane Adams and Jansen Kenty also had a strong day on the mound for Crimson as Alabama rested its more experienced pitchers.
"The biggest thing about today is it's one of the first times we get to go into a game-like situation," Vaughn said. "Obviously, you're not replicating opening day today, but it's an opportunity to go out and compete."
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Last season, Alabama finished 43-21 (16-14 SEC), but the year was marred by a gambling scandal that led to the firing of former coach Brad Bohannon. The Crimson Tide managed to finish strong under interim head coach Jason Jackson, hosting a regional and advancing to the Super Regional where they lost to top-seeded Wake Forest.
Alabama baseball's three pillars
One of the biggest challenges for a new head coach in any sport is establishing an identity for their team. Vaughn has wasted no time in doing just that for the Crimson Tide.
"We have three pillars that we hang our hats on: ownership, toughness and grit," Vaughn said. "We talk about that stuff every day because you're going to have days where you have your stuff and it's easy, but those days are few and far between."
Vaughn spoke on the importance of these traits as they relate to battling through adversity, especially within the SEC:
"What's really going to be the determining factors with this group are how we can show up when we don't feel 100% or our stuff's not great and, since this is the SEC, how much you can take a punch," Vaughn said.
"My last two teams at Maryland had this ability to take a punch where you could have a tough game or weekend and it didn't knock you off the rails: you showed up the next day, evaluated where you needed to get better, and went to work with a lot of belief that you're prepared to go out and win. That has to be who we are and what we do."
Vaughn's last two Maryland teams won Big 10 regular season titles in 2022 and 2023, so if his first Alabama team resembles those squads out of the gate, he'll be off to an ideal start.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama baseball coach Rob Vaughn on his first spring practice
