Alabama Baseball’s Historic Season Comes to a Close in Super Regional Loss to No. 1 Wake Forest

The Crimson Tide’s 2023 campaign ends — two wins shy of Omaha and the College World Series.

Austin Hannon | Jun 11, 2023

Alabama Athletics

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — All good things come to an end.

Alabama baseball battled with No. 1 overall seed Wake Forest on Saturday afternoon — and somewhat believed it should have come away with the victory.

The Crimson Tide (43-21, 16-14 SEC) was simply the inferior team in Game 2, suffering a 22-5 loss to eliminate Alabama from the NCAA tournament — bringing its season to a close.

"Very proud of our guys, very proud of our team," interim head coach Jason Jackson said. "I've done this a long time and I've never been more proud of a group of individuals than I am of this group. I think that they are everything that is good about college athletics. I think they are everything that is good about just the world today. [...] The character they've shown, the resiliency they've shown in these past couple months I think serve as a great example to our fans, the kids that watch us play."

Who thought the Crimson Tide would make it here? Not many. Alabama went through a coaching change at the beginning of May — but it was more than that. After Brad Bohannon’s firing, the Crimson Tide could have given up and quit — it didn’t.

Instead, Alabama made it to Friday night of the SEC tournament in Hoover, hosted a regional for the first time since 2006, won a regional and advanced to the Super Regionals for the first time in 13 years.

The goal was obviously to make it to Omaha for the College World Series for the first time since 1999 — but not everything can go your way. The Demon Deacons (52-10, 22-7 ACC) are the No. 1 overall seed for a reason — and proved to just be a better team than the Crimson Tide after 18 innings of baseball.

The 46 members on the Alabama roster aren't just better baseball players after this season — but better and stronger human beings as well. There aren’t a lot of groups of people that would be able to bond and grow the way the Crimson Tide did over the last month or so.

The season was truly special in a lot of ways. The Alabama baseball program has a lot more fans now than it may have had five weeks ago.

The veteran players should be proud. The likes of Jim Jarvis, Drew Williamson, Andrew Pinckney and many others came into the program when it was near rock-bottom. In 2019, the Crimson Tide won seven conference games. In 2020, the season was canceled due to COVID-19.

"It means so much [that] I'm not even going to be able to get into all of it but I'm so thankful to God for the opportunity to be able to play here and to be able to play on a team like this," Williamson said. "The amount of growth, the amount of pain, the resilience that you have to build playing here for five years — I'm just thankful to the University. I feel like I've grown as a person since I've been here so I'm forever thankful for that."

"I got really lucky that the coaching staff here took a chance on me," Jarvis said. "I'm really appreciative of them for allowing me to play and giving me a bunch of opportunities. [...] I'm just really thankful for the opportunity to get to play with my best friends. [...] I used to get asked if I got homesick being 30 hours away from home but it's pretty much impossible to here. Everyone here is family. [...] This is a place I can for sure call home for the rest of my life."

Simply said, Alabama’s tenured players have been through a lot and seen a lot — and have absolutely moved the program into a positive direction.

And how about Jason Jackson?

More than 20 years as an assistant coach throughout various programs — he finally got his shot at being a head coach in the top baseball league in the sport.

And he knocked it out of the park.

In 19 games, Jackson led the Crimson Tide to a 13-6 record — and brought a new energy to the dugout and to the fanbase. Alabama baseball was back in the spotlight — and it was because of his hard work and contributions to keep this season rolling when it seemed like it was going to come to a complete and utter halt.

"He couldn't have done any more perfect of a job," Williamson said. "I would go to war for this guy. I've loved the time I've gotten to spend playing for him. [...] I don't get to make any hiring decisions, but if I did, I promise you this would be my guy."

"We were in, as you can imagine, quite a big pickle and from literally the first day, he stepped up and was just a perfect, perfect leader," Jarvis said. "[He] kept everyone on the right line, made sure everyone was aware of the goal. [...] I can't say enough about him. [...] We don't get here without him."

Jackson may or may not return as head coach, many players will be coming and going — but the 2023 Crimson Tide emphatically put the program back on the map for years to come.

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