Alabama baseball was not one of this year’s regional hosts, but the Crimson Tide won’t be far from home when it opens up play in this year’s NCAA Tournament. Alabama was named as the No. 2 seed in the Hattiesburg Regional and will be paired up with No. 1 seed Southern Miss, No. 3 seed Miami and No. 4 seed Columbia. Alabama beat Southern Miss, 10-6, in Tuscaloosa on April 8.

The Tide will begin play in the double-elimination regional against Miami on Friday at 2 p.m. CT.

The winner of the Hattiesburg Regional will move on to face the winner of the Nashville Regional, which is hosted by No. 1 overall seed and SEC champion Vanderbilt, in the super regionals.

Despite head coach Rob Vaughn’s campaigning last week, Alabama learned Sunday night that it would not be one of the 16 regional hosts. The Tide ranks No. 13 in RPI and is No. 20 in strength of schedule, according to Warren Nolen.

“To me, it's a no-brainer,” Vaughn said last week when asked about Alabama’s hosting chances following his team’s SEC Tournament defeat to Tennessee. “This team went out and won every single midweek game all year. We lost one non-conference game all year. We've done some really good things. You win 17 games in the league with the top 12 RPI. I think it's kind of silly that we're talking about, are we hosting, are we not? It should be seeded in the top 16.”

Alabama (41-16) is coming off its first 40-win regular season since 2002. This year’s regional appearance marks the Tide’s third consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament, a feat it hasn’t achieved since 2009-11. Last year, Alabama lost to Central Florida and Stetson in the Tallahassee Regional. In 2023, the Tide hosted and won its regional before losing at Wake Forest in the super regionals.

Alabama has made five College World Series appearances in program history. Its most recent trip to Omaha, Nebraska was in 1999.