When Will Riley Quick Pitch in Alabama’s Regional Matchups?

Alabama baseball is awaiting the NCAA selection committee's decision on whether the Crimson Tide did enough to host a regional in Tuscaloosa next weekend.

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Meanwhile, Alabama head coach Rob Vaughn is working to iron out the Tide's pitching rotation, regardless of whether it's in Tuscaloosa. The Tide pitched Tyler Fay on Tuesday against Missouri and started Aeden Finateri on Wednesday against Tennessee. The Tide notably did not throw its star pitcher, Riley Quick, in the SEC Tournament, and many attribute the Tide's pitching struggles against the Vols to mismanagement by the coaching staff.

Postgame, Alabama head coach Rob Vaughn touched on why Quick did not pitch against Tennessee.

"I think a lot of that goes into kind of pitch count. A lot of that goes into workload," Vaughn said Wednesday after the loss to Tennessee. "You look up and Riley is still coming off a TJ, and he's a max effort arm. It's not like it's 86-88 [mph] and a changeup guy. It's 98 to 100 and kind of max effort stuff."

"Riley's pitch count got up a little bit higher last week at Florida," Vaughn said. "We talked to Riley. He played catch yesterday [Tuesday], and I think would have loved to have got out there and gone... We need Riley as fresh as he can be this upcoming Friday [in a regional]."

Quick pitched 84 total pitches in the Tide's 9-6 win over Florida on May 16. According to the NCAA pitching guidelines, Quick needed to rest for four days. Wednesday was the fifth day of rest for Quick, and now, the Tide won't play again until Friday, May 30, giving him 14 days between outings.

Will the Tide throw Quick in the first game of its regional matchup?

"I'd say there's a 95 percent chance you see Quick," Vaughn told Gary Harris on Friday morning.

Vaughn also said it depends on the matchups, but said if the Tide is a one seed playing a four seed, then it would be a "97 percent chance" Quick would play in the first game in Alabama's regional matchup.

You can listen to Rob Vaughn's full interview with Gary Harris here.

Wyatt Fulton is the Tide 100.9 DME and Brand Manager, primarily covering Alabama Crimson Tide football and men's basketball. For more Crimson Tide coverage, follow Wyatt on X (Formerly known as Twitter) at @FultonW_.