Two Bama Baseball Boys Headed To The Bigs; Athlon Sports Picks Tide Football No. 1; Alabama Track & Field Finishes 2017 Campaign

Alabama Baseball

Two Bama Boys Headed To The Bigs

Garrett Suchey
Photo Credit: UA Athletics

TUSCALOOSA, Alabama – A pair of University of Alabama baseball players were selected on Wednesday in the 2017 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. The Crimson Tide's Garrett Suchey was chosen in the 26th round by the Kansas City Royals and Chandler Taylor  was picked in the 27th round by the Minnesota Twins. Both were taken on the final day of the three-day draft event.

With the selections of Suchey and Taylor, the Tide now has an all-time draft pick total of 148 players since the draft's inception back in 1966. Alabama has now had at least one player taken for 39 consecutive years. In the past eight years, the Crimson Tide has had 40 players selected and 75 over the last 18 drafts dating back to 2000.

Both undergraduate players have remaining eligibility and are able to return to the University to continue their careers at Alabama if they elect to not sign a professional contract. The final date to sign a professional contract is July 15.

Chandler Taylor
Photo Credit: UA Baseball

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Athlon Sports Preseason Football Projects
Alabama No. 1 And Lists All SEC Programs

Athlon Sports has made known it's preseason 130 national rankings. Listed below are the teams representing the Southeastern Conference.

The Alabama Crimson Tide is both the highest ranked team in the SEC coming in at a familiar spot, both the top-rated program in the conference as well as No. 1 in the nation. Three teams from the Western division sit at the top of the conference standings: Alabama, Auburn as well as LSU before the Eastern Division enters the fray at number five, which is Georgia, ranked 15th in the nation as well. While the Western Division holds down the top three spots in the conference, the Eastern Division lays claim to four of the last five.

Here’s where the 14 SEC programs rank both nationally as well as listed in order of Southeastern Conference rank:

• No. 1 Alabama (1 SEC)
• No. 9 Auburn (2 SEC)
• No. 11 LSU (3 SEC) 
• No. 15 Georgia (4 SEC)
• No. 16 Florida (5 SEC)
• No. 19 Tennessee (6 SEC)
• No. 29 Arkansas (7 SEC)
• No. 30 Mississippi State (8 SEC)
• No. 37 Texas A&M (9 SEC)
• No. 40 South Carolina (10 SEC)
• No. 45 Kentucky (11 SEC)
• No. 46 Ole Miss (12 SEC)
• No. 48 Vanderbilt (13 SEC)
• No. 55 Missouri (14 SEC)

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Alabama Track & Field Finishes 2017 Campaign

Photo Credit: UA Athletics

TUSCALOOSA, Alabama – The University of Alabama Crimson Tide track & field teams finished the 2017 season with school record and All-America performances across all disciplines at last week's NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. A total of twenty-four Crimson Tide student-athletes earned All-America honors and the women's 4x100-meter relay set the UA track & field  record for the third time this season.

Bama track and field head coach Dan Waters said, "I'm very pleased and excited about the passion and energy and the way the team bought into what we were trying to accomplish this year. We fought hard in a lot of different places. Every time we asked the team to step up and do something special, they absolutely did. I couldn't be prouder of that competitiveness."

The UA men's team finished 10th at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, posting their first top-10 finish outdoors since 2001 and finished eighth at the NCAA Indoor Championships, to earn their first indoor and outdoor top-10 finishes in the same season since 2001. The Alabama women finished third at the NCAA Indoor Championships for their first top-three finish since 1994. The combined top-10 finishes indoors for the men and women in 2017 is a first for the Crimson Tide.

Alabama sent 30 athletes to Eugene, Oregon for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 2017. Eighteen of the 30 will return in 2018, including seven school record holders.