Alabama Baseball Undecided on Starter for Game 3 of Hattiesburg Regional

HATTIESBURG, Miss.— Alabama baseball is in the losers' bracket at the 2025 Hattiesburg Regional after a heartbreaking ending to its 5-3 loss against No. 3 seed Miami (Fla.) Friday afternoon. The No. 2-seeded Crimson Tide is in this predicament for the second straight postseason.

That affects how the pitching stable will be managed, with win-or-die stakes now attached to every game Alabama plays for the duration of the regional. A source told BamaCentral minutes after the Miami game that the team needed more time to decide on who Saturday's pitcher will be.

Redshirt sophomore Riley Quick made his NCAA Tournament starting debut on Friday, working six innings with a career-high 108 pitches. He also allowed five runs, all of them earned, and took his third loss of the campaign.

There was, perhaps, a debate on the front end of Friday's game about whether to start Quick or fellow righty Tyler Fay, who has been at the front of the Crimson Tide's weekend rotation since mid-April. Fay worked six one-run innings at the SEC Tournament last week.

Alabama (41-17) almost escaped by the skin of its teeth despite Quick not throwing his best. Left fielder Kade Snell came agonizingly close to a walk-off home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, missing a three-run bomb by fewer than five feet.

Whomever the starter is, it will likely be one of Fay or sophomore left-hander Zane Adams. Those are the two arms other than Quick in the weekend rotation, and the team's already-limited room for error has clean evaporated.

The arms are mostly fresh, thanks not only to Quick but also to southpaw reliever Matthew Heiberger, who ate up three shutout innings against the Hurricanes. Alabama plays the loser of No. 16 national seed Southern Miss vs. Columbia in the third overall game of the regional on Saturday at 2 p.m. CT.

A decision on a hurler likely at least partly hinges on the victor between the Golden Eagles and Lions. Southern Miss, the regional host, is set to throw ace JB Middleton (a Golden Spikes semifinalist with 10 wins on the season and an ERA of 2.01) on Saturday.