Tag: starting pitcher

Alabama’s Opening Day starter ranked as top 5 college pitcher in the country

Alabama baseball sophomore pitcher Connor Prielipp will be the Crimson Tide’s Opening Day starter. He has been ranked as a top 5 pitcher.

Alabama baseball is set to begin a new season, and after a hot start to the 2020 season that was cut short due to COVID, the team is back and ready to pick up where they left off.

The 2021 Crimson Tide baseball season will begin on Friday, Feb. 19 with a three-game series at home against McNeese State, where sophomore pitcher Connor Prielipp will get the Opening Day start on the mound.

“Connor got off to a great start last year as a freshman and has really separated himself from the rest of the pack,” said head coach Brad Bohannon. “I don’t have any doubt that he’ll give us a great start on Friday and give us a chance to win.”

Prielipp, a 6-foot-3 lefty from Wisconin, was named National Freshman Player of the Year by Collegiate Baseball News after a 2020 freshman season that featured 21 innings, strikeout 35, walk six, only give up 5 hits and four wins.

Baseball America ranks Alabama as the No. 25 team in the nation heading into the season, and they have also announced their top-five pitchers prior to the season beginning – Prielipp comes in at No. 4.

An interesting note: All five of the pitchers are from SEC programs, which should make for a very competitive conference schedule.