Kevin Hall Jr. Turned a Tough Ending Into a New Beginning
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - May 21, 2026
In hindsight, Kevin Hall Jr. landed exactly where he needed to be when he joined the UAB baseball program from the transfer portal.
Hall spent his first season helping spark an offense that kept the Blazers in the race for the American Conference championship until late in the season and has them confident about making noise in the conference tournament. He’s anchored himself at the top of the batting order for most of the season and has been a defensive strength in centerfield. The 5-foot-10, 180-pound junior’s batting average hovered around .300 for most of the season. He has the speed to lead the team with 18 steals and the power to finish second on the team with nine home runs.
One of his biggest moments this season came in the first of a three-game American Conference series against visiting Memphis on April 24. The Tigers took a 6-5 lead into the bottom of the 11th inning. Austin Pierzynski tied the game up with a solo home run and Hall ended the game two batters late with a solo home run of his own. That propelled the Blazers to a series win.
On Thursday afternoon, UAB and Memphis meet again in a second round game in the American Conference Tournament in Clearwater, Fla. with first pitch scheduled for 45 minutes after the noon CT game ends.
Pretty much every way you slice it, Hall has been an important part of making sure the preseason prognostication that UAB would finish last in The American didn’t pan out.
In reality, though, Hall wasn’t supposed to be here. If things had followed his original plan, the Chicago area native would be finishing his second season in the Purdue Fort Wayne program. Hall thrived in his first season at the school – hitting .298 with 54 hits – after coming back closer to home following a freshman year at Grambling State University.
That plan changed in a way that UAB fans have some familiarity with. Hall and his teammates were forced to find another college baseball home when the university dropped the baseball program. Hall said they didn’t see it coming.
“Everything was going according to plan and then one random morning, we ended up getting a text saying that we had a very important meeting that was mandatory and everybody needed to be there,” Hall said. “We get to the meeting and everybody's crying and things like that. We get the news that the program was getting cut down.”
The school also shut down the softball program because of budget cuts. Until then, Hall was close to deciding that he was going to stay in the program.
“You know, I take myself to be a very loyal guy,” Hall said. “At the beginning of the season, I was 2 for my first 21 at bats or something like that. My coach told me I'm a good player and he's seen what I could do and he continued to put me out there every day in centerfield and batting in the lineup. I definitely thought about that a ton. I was talking to my parents and I was praying on it. I wasn't 100% sure what I was going to do yet. I think I would have stayed thinking back on it.”
This is where hindsight shows up.
“But I feel like this whole thing was kind of a sign that there's another level for me to go to,” Hall said.
Hall had interest from several programs once he entered the transfer portal. He eventually landed on UAB but wasn’t quite sure what to expect upon arriving in Birmingham.
“As far as transitioning into UAB, I would definitely say this is obviously the biggest school I've been to in my three years of college,” Hall said. “I was really just looking forward to the resources. I know a lot of people say that they might not feel like we have enough resources, but this is a lot to me. The coaching staff that we have, the experience and the technology that we have, I really just was like a sponge to it all throughout the fall and even now. I would say I am definitely grateful for the opportunity and blessed to be here now.”
Hall said it didn’t take long for him to see the difference in programs.
“I could just tell by different things, like even the group of guys that I was surrounded with,” Hall said. “We would have 5 a.m. workouts. I came there at 4:15 because I wanted to beat everybody else and about six guys were already there stretching. That just kind of gave me the realization that there's really levels to this as far as guys wanting to get better. That's always what I wanted to be around and I always wanted to challenge myself.”
UAB head coach Casey Dunn thought he got a good player in Hall but was unsure of exactly where he fit. In some ways, he wasn’t convinced of Hall’s role until he saw him play in games.
“You know, I think Kevin's a guy that is a much better game time player than a practice player,” Dunn said earlier this season. “He's one of those guys that, you know, he's got a little gamer in him. Really since opening day, he's been able to get big hits for us and played really well, been good in the leadoff spot for us.”
Hall laughed when he heard that assessment from his head coach.
“I don't disagree with him,” Hall said. “I mean, I go hard in practice, but I just feel like I switch to a different type of mode in games. I'm a big on envision. I love praying and meditating before games and stuff. I always have the dates locked in on the calendar, when we're going to play, and things of that sort. So when game time comes, I would definitely say I'm a lot more locked in.”
Now, Hall and his teammates are locked in to trying to win a conference title. The Blazers struggled late in the regular season but will carry momentum into today’s game after winning two out of three against league champion UTSA to end the regular season.
“I still don't think we played our best baseball throughout this entire year,” Hall said. “We know what we can do. We've seen bits and pieces of what we can do. Now we're just trying to put it all together. This team has a lot of potential. I genuinely think there's no ceiling on how far we can go. We're just here, playing for one another and we'll see where it takes us.”