Alabama awaits SEC baseball tournament seed with best conference record since 2009

Alabama baseball secured the program’s best SEC regular-season record since 2009 by completing a three-game sweep of Ole Miss.

The Tide awaits next week’s SEC tournament after finishing 16-14 in the conference, which was the eighth-best mark in the SEC after Friday’s doubleheader wins over the Rebels.

Alabama is done for the weekend after moving up its Saturday finale in anticipation of stormy weather. But other SEC teams will play seven more games before the tournament seedings are finalized Saturday evening.

Alabama (38-17) will head to Hoover with a .533 winning percentage, the school’s best mark since an 18-11 finish 14 years ago. Alabama had not finished with a winning record since 2014, when it went 15-14.

After firing coach Brad Bohannon on May 4 when he was connected to betting, Alabama won eight of its final 10 regular-season games. That included a series win over top-five ranked Vanderbilt, then two more series victories at Texas A&M and Ole Miss. The Rebels were the defending national champions this season but finished with an SEC-worst 6-24 record after losing to Alabama twice Friday, 12-2 and 5-1.

Under interim coach Jason Jackson, Alabama will begin SEC tournament play with a single-elimination game Tuesday. A win would unlock double-elimination for the Tide, which would play again Wednesday and Thursday in the 12-team tournament that concludes Sunday, May 28.

Alabama entered Friday ranked 11th in Division I in adjusted RPI. The Tide received the third-most votes of any team outside of the top 25 in this week’s coaches poll.

Alabama will learn its NCAA tournament draw on Memorial Day. Baseball America this week projected Alabama as the No. 2 seed in the Coral Gables, Florida regional with No. 12 overall seed Miami. It would be the second tournament berth in the past three seasons for a program that had none from 2015-19.

Mike Rodak is an Alabama beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @mikerodak.