Drew Williamson reveals emotions on turning Alabama program around over five years

Alabama baseball went on an inspired run to end the season after they were in quite a bit of turmoil towards the end for off-the-field reasons. Alas, their quest for a College World Series opponent came up just short as the Tide ran into a buzzsaw in No. 1 overall seed Wake Forest, who dominated ‘Bama to the tune of a 27-9 scores across the first two games to sweep the Super Regional round.

Of course, the end of the season means it’s time to reflect on the year that was. For fifth-year senior Drew Williamson, there’s no reason to hang his head. He said in the postgame that he’s still proud of the work the team put in, especially in an even stronger SEC than normal.

“Okay, that’s a long hard ride. Hey, tough conference and it’s just…it’s just relentless all the time,” said Williamson. “Once you think you may have taken that next step you just get hit right in the mouth and it’s just that constant battle, just back and forth. You’re hitting them out, get backup and, you know, I mean, our goal is to go to Omaha this year and we came up two wins short of that one. But I know the work that we put in and that’s all you can control at the end of the day. You can’t control outcomes, but we control the work that we put in, and I can hang my hat on them.”

The graduated veteran also got a little emotional when discussing the end of the year, just explaining how grateful he is for the time he spent in Tuscaloosa.

“It means so much,” Williamson said. “I’m not even going to be able to get into all of it. But I will just say this — I am so thankful to God for the opportunity to just be able to play here. And to be able to play on a team like this with this group of guys. I love every single one of them. They mean so much to me. This coaching staff, the university, just everything about it.

“The amount of growth, the amount of pain, and resilience that you have to build playing here for five years. I’m just thankful to the University for making me feel like I have grown as a person since I’ve been here. So, I’m forever thankful for that.”

Always a tough time having to talk to media right after a season-ending loss. Emotions are running deep and definitely for Williamson, who just seemed happy to have gotten the chance to play some college ball for the Crimson Tide.