Alabama Baseball Transfer Breakdown: Owen Sarna

Wednesday brought the fourth transfer commitment from a pitcher to join Alabama baseball's 2026 team. Right-hander Owen Sarna, who just concluded his sophomore campaign at Winthrop, announced his next stop was with the Crimson Tide.

Sarna worked as a swingman in Rock Hill, starting nine games (out of 13 appearances) in 2024 and 10 contests (18 appearances) in 2025. In both years, his earned run average hovered around five; his career mark sits at 4.97 after he went 4-3 with a 5.14 mark this season.

The rising junior fanned 57 across 63 innings as a sophomore. He walked the same number of batters (21) two seasons in a row, indicating that he has cut down on his walk rate since he threw more frames this past season.

The Alabama staff hopes to see that continue, since Sarna seems to be trending in the direction of primarily being used out of the bullpen. That's been the main group that the program has fortified through the portal this offseason. Sarna has struck out 95 batters in his college career.

His strikeout tallies show promise, specifically in how the single season number rose. He upped his 2024 total by 19 with only one more start and 13.2 additional innings under his belt compared to his freshman year.

Sarna was one of the top freshmen in the Big South in 2024, making the conference's All-Freshman team. Alabama has drawn pitching additions with ties to that league in the past, notably former weekend starter Bobby Alcock, who joined the team from Gardner-Webb.

As with other transfer pickups, head coach Rob Vaughn and his assistant coaches saw in Sarna a player who appreciably demonstrated improvement from 2024 to 2025. There will be a sizable step up in competition, but that comes with the territory when a transfer moves into the SEC, whether that transfer comes from a midmajor program or not.