How Will Alabama Baseball's 2025 Season Be Remembered?

"Nobody remembers how you started. Nobody is going to talk about this season in 2025 as the first time we won 40 games since 2002 or the record start that we went on, winning 16 games in a row. Nobody is going to talk about that if we go 0-2 this weekend."Rob Vaughn

Those were Alabama baseball coach Rob Vaughn's words on Thursday, a day before the Crimson Tide took the field in Hattiesburg, where it would go 0-2 in its regional for the second consecutive year.

By Vaughn's rationale, the season will be remembered as a failure. The initial reactions on social media have fully backed that sentiment. Alabama's fan base is left with a very bitter taste in its mouth, and it is easy to see why.

The Crimson Tide showed flashes of greatness throughout the front half of the 2025 season. Justin Lebron slugged at a tumultuous pace, recording 12 home runs and 50 RBIs before the calendar even flipped to April, emerging as a frontrunner for the Golden Spikes Award as Alabama raced to a 26-4 start. Things regressed to the mean as the grueling SEC schedule took its toll, but the Crimson Tide managed a winning record in conference play, highlighted by a huge series win over No. 7 Georgia.

The end result —a second-round SEC Tournament exit to Tennessee and an 0-2 showing at the Hattiesburg Regional—raises legitimate concerns. Vaughn is 0-4 in regional games with the Crimson Tide and has posted a 6-10 record over the last five years, going back to his time with Maryland. His teams have qualified for the regional in five consecutive seasons, being one of the top two seeds in the past four years, and have come up with nothing to show for it. Season-ending losses to No. 4 seeds George Mason and Stetson in 2023 and 2024, respectively, are disappointing to say the least.

But at the end of the day, Alabama exceeded expectations in almost every way, shape, and form this year. Picked to finish 13th in the SEC and not given any preseason top 25 consideration, the Crimson Tide finished ninth in the conference and rose as high as No. 8 in the D1Baseball poll.

"Right now it hurts, because we all want to raise a trophy in the end," Vaughn said. "Alabama deserves that. We've got to be better and give them that."

Vaughn has harped numerous times on just how special the group of players he has had this year was. From the larger-than-life personalities of players like Brennen Norton to the countless nicknames that graced the diamond (Braylon Myers, affectionately known as 'Shaq,' is a runaway favorite), team chemistry was off the charts, something that all started with team captain Kade Snell.

"We have number three as our captain every year, and that's something that we are very selective with, and man, he led this team as good as anyone I've ever seen," Vaughn said of Snell. "It's unbelievable the way he blended being able to communicate with absolute immense toughness while also having a career year."

Snell hit .363 (good for fourth in the SEC) with 10 home runs and 52 RBIs as the senior played his way into MLB Draft consideration. He is one of several key players moving on, a part of a list that includes ace Riley Quick, NCAA save leader Carson Ozmer, the aforementioned quintessential glue-guy Norton, and 15-home-run hitter Will Hodo. Richie Bonomolo Jr. is one of a number of juniors who will have draft decisions to make, and with the nature of the transfer portal, it is a foregone conclusion that the 2026 roster will look markedly different.

"Now, it's time to continue building on what we're doing," Vaughn said. "Everybody talks about 'yeah it was fine' and I get the fans want more. We all want more. We're going to get more. I can promise you that. But this group laid that foundation."

Ultimately, the Rob Vaughn chapter of the Alabama baseball history book is still being written. With the success he's had already, it appears as though the chapter is just getting started. But programs rise and fall on a yearly basis with little to no explanation, and it would be just as easy to forecast that this 2025 season will be the peak of Vaughn's tenure as it would be to say that the Crimson Tide will be headed to Omaha 12 months from now. It's up to Vaughn to ensure that the end result falls closer to the second option.

"We're in a microwave society where it's immediate, I want it now, quick fix here, quick fix there," Vaughn said. "Quick fixes blow down when things get rough. This thing ain't going to blow down. We're going to build this thing the right way. We're going to build it with the right people, and the last two years have been the foundation of that. Now it's time to keep moving forward."