The University of Alabama baseball team is expected to prominently feature youth in its pitching staff in 2020, and now it has some reinforcements set to enter the program behind them.
Of the 10 players UA signed in the early signing period this week, six of them are pitchers, and two of them were rated as the best pitcher in their state by Perfect Game.
“I’m really excited about this group,” UA coach Brad Bohannon said in a statement. “Jason (Jackson) and Jerry (Zulli) did a great job of attracting some of the high-end kids in Alabama before they focused on filling specific needs outside the state. This class is a smaller group than the past two years, which shows that we are very pleased with the young talent currently within the program. We genuinely appreciate these kids and their families for believing in the direction of our program, and we, as a staff, are very excited about the future of Alabama baseball.”
The signing class included the top arm from Missouri (right-hander Jake Eddington) and Tennessee (left-hander Grayson Hitt). UA also got two position players ranked as the best at their position in their state: infielder Bryce Edlin was the best in Indiana and Grant Knipp was the best catcher in Kentucky.
All told, the class’ 10 signees hailed from five states: five from Alabama, two from Tennessee and one each from Indiana, Missouri and Kentucky. The other Tennessee signing was Will Portera, a switch-hitting infielder from Memphis.
UA got four right-handed pitchers from within state lines: Eli Giles from Mobile, Logan Morris from Madison, Dylan Ray from New Market and Brayden Rowe from Warrior.
Caden Rose, an infielder from Madison, was rated as the third-best Alabaman prospect at his position. He is high school teammates (Bob Jones High School) with Ray.
