Alabama head baseball coach Brad Bohannon

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Alabama’s baseball team has won 13 straight games to open the 2020 season and is off to the second-best start in program history. It’s also the best start and longest winning streak for the Crimson Tide under third-year head coach Brad Bohannon.

“I’m not surprised that we’re off to a good start,” Bohannon said. “I’ve said from Day 1 I think we’re a very good baseball team. What does that mean by SEC standards and SEC West standards? We’ll certainly find out over the course of the spring. But I’m not surprised that we’re doing well. I don’t think anybody really expects to win 13 in a row. That’s hard to do.

“I don’t care if you’re playing T-ball, that’s hard. I don’t want to back away from being proud of the accomplishment, but also, our fate all comes down to how we do in league play.”

This isn’t the first time, however, Alabama has started the season strong. Just last year, the Tide opened its 2019 campaign with a 16-2 record before conference play but went 14-24 the rest of the way. So, what is different about this team than the squad UA fielded in 2019?

“It feels a little bit different,” outfielder T.J. Reeves said. “Last year we did start off pretty well, but this year, I just feel like our bats are just in a whole different place. Our offense is just electric this year. We’ve got so much energy coming out of the dugout, in the locker room. We just gel so well together that I feel like every game we go out there we can 10-run rule somebody.”

Alabama (13-0) enters its final weekend series against a non-conference opponent as the Tide gets set to host Lipscomb (8-3) at Sewell-Thomas Stadium. Bohannon will stick with the same starting rotation that has swept the first three three-game series of the year in Connor Prielipp (3-0, 0.00 ERA), Connor Shamblin (1.0, 3.60) and Antoine Jean (2.0, 3.75).

Bohannon said he has been pleased with the consistency of his 2020 team. During the 13-game winning streak, Alabama is outscoring its foes, 117-35, and averaging 9.0 runs per game. The Tide has produced double-digit runs in seven games and had double-digit hit totals in nine contests, including eight at home. Alabama hitters have also hit 20 home runs.

But what does Bohannon want to see from his team in the final outings before SEC play?

“The quality of the game gets better over the course of the season,” he said. “I think any coach would tell you in February, you may get by with a pitch that gets fouled and then in May that ball gets hit in the gap. It’s just the quality of the pitches, the quality of the at-bats. There’s not just one area of our team that I’m like super concerned about.

Alabama sophomore RHP Connor Shamblin

“We’re going to have some failure at some point. I hope we go 56-0, that’s the goal. We can’t do it without starting 13-0. I don’t know how this group’s going to respond when we blow a lead late, when we lost two in a row, when we get walked off. Those things are probably going to happen, and they can and we could go to the College World Series. So, I think you have all those intangible-type things that we won’t know until we go through.

“But I believe in the people that our kids are. We’ve got a nice mix of older kids that are just really, really sick of losing and just really determined to win. And we’ve got some new faces that when I make a comment every now and then about the past, they look at me like they have no idea what I’m talking about, and I think that’s a really good thing.

“We’ve just got to keep doing what we’re doing.”

Alabama cracked the top-25 rankings this week thanks to its impressive start. The Crimson Tide is currently ranked as high as No. 23 in the Collegiate Baseball News poll, while also being ranked No. 25 in the USA Today Coaches poll and No. 26 by the NCBWA.

With four non-conference games to go before SEC play begins next weekend with a three-game series with Missouri at Sewell-Thomas Stadium, UA has a chance to break the 15-0 mark to open a season (1997) and the school-record winning streak of 16 games (1999).

And it’s not shying away from that challenge.

“I’m probably going against the coaches handbook, but I think it’s a big deal,” Bohannon said. “The University of Alabama’s been in the College World Series five times, been to 24 regionals and had 68 Major League Baseball players. To set any kind of record at a program like this I think is pretty stinking cool, and I want to get that record.”

Shamblin added, “I want it, if we’re being honest. Selfishly, I want that 15-0, 16-0. I don’t want to lose. That’s not what we’re about here. Just being able to say, ‘Hey, Alabama baseball is 15-0, and they did something special to start the season.’ But ultimately, that doesn’t matter unless we continue on in SEC play.”

Contact Charlie Potter by personal message or on Twitter (@Charlie_Potter).