WATCH: Alabama catcher Will Portera has great way to wait out SEC Tournament rain delay
Alabama and Georgia were set to kick off the SEC Baseball Tournament at 10:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday morning, but weather quickly got in the way. With the 11th-seeded Crimson Tide leading the sixth-seeded Bulldogs 5-1 with nobody out in the bottom of the third, a rain delay began at 11:15 a.m. ET. That delay has taken a couple of hours, with play set to resume at approximately 2:20 p.m. ET.
During the rain delay, Alabama catcher Will Portera found a great way to stay busy. Portera began crouching down into his catcher position, catching pitches thrown by kids down the left field line. A long line of kids lined up, and each stepped up to throw a pitch down to Portera.
Portera has played sparingly this season, and he is a versatile player with the ability to play the infield in addition to his primary position at catcher. He has started five games this season. Portera is hitting .241 on the year in 29 at-bats, driving in two runs with seven hits and one walk.
Alabama off to a good start in the SEC Tournament
Things have certainly gone well early for Alabama in the SEC Tournament, although rain delays can make things tricky. After such a long layover between the start and end of the delay, the Crimson Tide will need to come out strong right away to carry its momentum over into the rest of the game.
Entering the SEC Tournament, Alabama was 29-25 overall and 12-17 against SEC opponents. With a trip to the NCAA Tournament unlikely without a long run this week, Alabama head coach Brad Bohannon knows exactly what’s at stake.
“We’re going with a mindset that our season is over if we don’t win on Tuesday, whether that’s accurate or not,” Bohannon said, via Alabama play-by-play broadcaster Roger Hoover. “We need to have a good week and a long week if we want to play after this SEC Tournament.”
The winner of Tuesday’s game between Alabama and Georgia will advance to face Arkansas on Wednesday morning. There are three other games scheduled to be played on Tuesday afternoon.