With an extra host site, Prep Baseball Report’s third-annual South Alabama Showdown also expanded to a 20-team field to help kick off the baseball season in Baldwin County Feb. 20-22, 2025.

Robertsdale High School, as well as the Sportsplexes in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, have been the host sites for the last two years with around a dozen teams in each event. With Fairhope’s Volanta Park added to the mix in a Wednesday announcement, the season-kickoff event has nearly doubled.

“(The Pirates have) played in this the last couple of years so they kind of got a taste of it. I think the early talks of potentially adding another host site started last year,” explained Austin Sharp, Scouting Director for PBR Alabama, in an Oct. 24 interview. “Fairhope was gracious enough to be able to allow us to use Volanta Park, which we think is another excellent venue to host these teams. Can't thank Fairhope enough, and we’re excited to get down there and for high school baseball to start.”

Other top teams in the field

Four other local squads will help fill the field as most of the 20 teams were featured in the state rankings for their respective classifications throughout last season and many made deep postseason runs. Bayside Academy, Spanish Fort, Baldwin County and Daphne will join St. Paul’s, UMS-Wright, Mobile Christian and Saraland in having shorter road trips to start the regular season.

Sharp said the past success in the event generated by him and his father David Sharp, Deep South Supervisor for PBR, and the opportunity to see new faces early in the season has drawn teams from all over the state, including those who secured their spots for this season like Hartselle, Spain Park, Chelsea, Hueytown, Thompson, Tuscaloosa Academy, American Christian and Smiths Station.

“It's attracting more of those teams who are wanting to come down and play some different teams. And that's kind of what we did when we made the schedule,” Austin said. “The coaches and players are used to playing most of the same teams every year, and we feel like this event gives those teams an opportunity to play some other teams that they possibly wouldn't play in the season.”

Schedule talk

When looking over the weekend schedule, Austin found multiple games on each day that could produce some interesting contests. He pointed out games like Saraland against Mobile Christian, American Christian Academy against Gulf Shores then Bayside Academy, and Hartselle against Tuscaloosa County before arriving at the marquee Friday night game.

Orange Beach and Gulf Shores played the programs’ first baseball game against each other at the inaugural South Alabama Showdown where the Dolphins rolled to a 10-0 win. Tripp Carter helped even the all-time series for the Makos with a no-hitter in the 2024 Battle for the Island.

“We're wanting to continue to bring in more and more high-level teams,” Austin said. “You can look at all (33) matchups and they all have a case to be highly competitive baseball games with good players up and down the lineup.”

That action is also what brought teams to PBR’s inbox to hopefully get on the list for the next event.

“We dropped the schedule then had more teams that are reaching out potentially for next season, and that's the way we want it. We want this to be a highly prestigious event that teams want to come down, that players want to come down,” Austin said. “It attracts the best teams and the best players. We've heard nothing but good things from coaches, from teams that have already played in it that want to come back, so we think that only elevates this event.”

Game limits help teams ease into year

Austin also acknowledged how early in the season their event will be where teams in the Alabama High School Athletic Association can begin practicing on Jan. 15, 2025, before the first games can be played on Feb. 15, 2025.

“If you start it on Thursday and it runs until Saturday, you've just got to think about teams. It's early in the season so you don't want to have pitchers going out there having to throw on Thursday and then having to come back and throw on Saturday,” Austin said. “Trying to limit those players having to play as much so the three games that each team will play will give them a fair shot of being able to show what they have early in the season.”

Photos of the daily schedules for 2025’s South Alabama Showdown are included above. Be sure to follow @GCMSportsAL on social media for immediate updates and stay tuned to gulfcoastmedia.com/sports for full coverage.