Rob Vaughn Calls For Fan Support as Baseball Program Set to Host Regional
Alabama baseball waits Monday's NCAA Tournament selection show with great anticipation after completing one of the best regular seasons in recent program history. The Crimson Tide finished fourth in the SEC and finds themselves on the bubble of a top-eight national seed in next week's NCAA Tournament.
Regardless of if Alabama is a top-eight seed or not, the Crimson Tide will be a top-16 seed, meaning postseason baseball returns to Tuscaloosa for the first time since 2023. Alabama defeated Nicholls, Troy and Boston College to advance to the Super Regionals where they lost to Wake Forest.
It's been three years since Alabama hosted a regional and the Crimson Tide has gone 0-4 in the two postseasons since, but June baseball at Sewell-Thomas Stadium is a sight to behold.
"When Ole Miss was here, Coach Bianco was saying, 'Man, this place looks great.'" Rob Vaughn said. "We had the '96 and '06 SEC Championship teams here this last weekend, hearing those guys talk about how much this has changed since they played here. It's just a beautiful place to come watch a game. It's a good place to take it in.
"I think that's the beauty of this, we need fans to show up. Not just show up, but to like impact the game and to be rowdy and reckless and all of the things that go into that. These kids put so much into this since August of pouring their heart into this and both guys sitting here [Tyler Fay and Bryce Fowler] very easily could've not been here this year with the Major League Baseball draft and chose to come back and push that a little bit further down the road with no guarantee they'd ever have that situation again. If Bryce comes out and hits .150 this year, he doesn't get a chance to play pro ball, but he bet on himself and on this place and is having a career year. Tyler Fay, no guarantee that he was going to come out and have the success that he's had, but the man said I want to do it and I want to do it here.
"I think when you start to see the behind the scenes stuff of all the guys put in here, that's the stuff that makes you get on board. That's the stuff that makes you show up and empty for these kids. Man, I think they've more than deserved a Regional here in Tuscaloosa. We need to go punch somebody in the mouth on Thursday and go play here until we get to Omaha, that's the goal here. If we can be a national seed, you start to create a pretty unique situation for yourself as you move into postseason play. We need them here. We need them rowdy. We need them loud, and we need them to impact winning and losing of the game."
Alabama will find out its fate on Monday at 11 a.m. CT on the NCAA selection show.
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This story was originally published May 24, 2026 at 6:00 AM.