In the nation’s most stacked conference tournament, through two days, there have not been a ton of surprises in the SEC Tournament as three of the top four seeds have all moved on in the winners bracket.
Day One got started off with a surprising result, as the Alabama Crimson Tide took down Ole Miss by a score of 6-1. The 11th-seeded Alabama squad would move on to face three-seed Texas A&M, while the Rebels exited the SEC Tourney without a win. The six two-out runs by Alabama may actually be beneficial for Ole Miss, as they’ll now be able to rest and setup their pitching staff exactly how they want it entering Regional play next week.
Alabama followed up the win with a close 4-3 loss to Texas A&M on Wednesday. The Aggies scored a run in the bottom of the eighth off the bat of Nick Banks to pick up the victory.
The most surprising thing to casual college baseball fans may be the fact that South Carolina’s season seems to be over after one day of conference tournament play. The Gamecocks fell to Missouri 5-1, and finish the season just 32-25 and 13-17 in SEC play after getting off to a 17-3 start. A College World Series mainstay won’t even get a sniff of postseason play this year.
Missouri looked poised to upset 2-seed Vanderbilt Wednesday morning, leading 6-2 entering the seventh inning. But the Commodores managed to score four runs over the final three frames to force extra innings.
The Tigers went 1-2-3 in the top of the 10th, bringing Rhett Wiseman up to lead off the bottom half of the inning. Then he did this. A walkoff homer off of the fielder’s glove.
That’s a tough way to go down for Missouri, but they’ll need to rebound Thursday morning vs. Alabama. The Tigers are very much on the bubble for the NCAA tournament, and another win would do them a lot of good.
Now to the bottom half of the bracket, where Auburn disposed of Kentucky, and Arkansas squeaked by Tennessee on day one.
Auburn moved on to get No. 1 LSU, and got out to an 8-3 lead over the nation’s top team through four innings.
But the Bayou Bengals responded with sixth runs in the fifth thanks to three doubles and three singles in the stanza. LSU’s bullpen then shut it down, allowing just one hit and three walks over the final four innings.
Arkansas drew 4-seed Florida, but the Gators were too much for most of the game, as the Razorbacks stranded tons of runners late Wednesday night and into Thursday morning.
Florida took a 6-4 lead into the ninth, and that’s when Arkansas’ Andrew Benintendi got to showoff his skills, blasting a home run to lead off the ninth, making it a one-run deficit. Bobby Wernes followed that up with a two-run shot of his own to give the Hogs the lead.
Florida would get the tying run to third in the bottom of the ninth, but a strikeout ended the game and the crazy long day.
Here’s a look at Thursday’s SEC Tournament schedule:
(7) Missouri vs. (11) Alabama – 10:30 AM ET
(9) Auburn vs. (4) Florida – Approx. 2 PM ET
(2) Vanderbilt vs. (3) Texas A&M – 5:30 PM ET
(1) LSU vs. (5) Arkansas – Approx. 9 PM ET
The first two games are win-or-go-home affairs, while the two late games are simply winners bracket games. All the games will be on the SEC Network.
Can’t get enough of Campus Sports? Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to stay updated with the latest news and exclusive giveaways!
*Featured Photo (above) credit to LSU Sports Net
