Jason Jackson credits Alabama players for late-season success

Alabama had a 13-4 finish going into the postseason and prepared to play Wake Forest in the NCAA Super Regional. Interim coach Jason Jackson gave all the credit to the players.

Amid a betting scandal that saw the end of former coach Brad Bohannon’s tenure, Jackson came in and righted the ship. Now Alabama is a step closer to the College World Series.

Jackson tipped his cap to his players and veteran leadership.

“I think just our veteran leadership, the maturity on our team now,” Jackson said. “I hate to look at one weekend, right? Part of playing in this league is there’s going to be times you go on the road get swept, you know, and you have to rebound from it. That’s what these guys have done and we’ve played good for the bulk of the year. I don’t know that there was any big all of a sudden change, you know? We started coming out on the good end a little bit more often. But if you look back even through our non-conference and early league play …

“We were just kind of a little bit snake bitten maybe at times and couldn’t quite figure out a way to hold a lead late, finish a game and some things get kind of worked out in the bullpen.”

Even in a series against top ranked LSU, Alabama fought hard despite a sweep in the regular season. The Crimson Tide and Jackson knew there was something brewing.

“The thing at LSU like that seems really good, I think they were ranked number one at the time and you know, when we were there and went toe to toe with them and came up short all three times,” Jackson said. “But I don’t think our guys flinch. I think they left there like it was good and that’s part of being an older veteran group and, you know, I say it again it goes back to guys like these two,“ (pointing to Jackson Tommy Seidl and Jim Jarvis).

The Crimson Tide were hot under Jackson. After a 3-0 stint in the Tuscaloosa Regional, there’s no reason to think Alabama can’t keep it going.

But the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest are the next big challenge.

At 43-19, Alabama is schedule to take on Wake Forest Saturday at 12 p.m. ET with Game 2 scheduled for Sunday at TBD time.