Opening Weekend was finally here and the 2020 baseball season is underway. The SEC had a solid showing to open up the first season. We’ll take a look at how the series went down.
Weekend Wrap-Up
Overall the SEC capped off a successful opening weekend for the conference. Nine different teams pulled off sweeps. The breakdown from each series is below.
- Alabama: 3-0 vs Northeastern
- No.7 Arkansas: 3-0 vs Eastern Illinois
- No.8 Auburn: 4-0 vs University of Illinois-Chicago
- No.4 Florida: 3-0 vs Marshall
- No.5 Georgia: 3-0 vs Richmond
- Kentucky: 0-3 @ TCU
- No.11 LSU: 2-1 vs Indiana
- No.10 Mississippi State: 3-0 vs Wright State
- Missouri: 2-1 @ Jacksonville State
- No.25 Ole Miss: 2-1 vs No.1 Louisville
- South Carolina: 3-0 vs Holy Cross
- Tennessee: 3-0 vs Western Illinois
- No.20 Texas A&M: 3-0 vs Miami (OH)
- No.2 Vanderbilt: 1-2 No.13 Michigan (L), UCONN (W), Cal Poly (W)
Most of the conference took care of business against their non-power five opponents. Georgia was the only team that struggled a little bit in their sweep. The Richmond spiders gave the Bulldogs all they could handle, losing by just one run in two of the three games.
Missouri took two out of three against what a good Jacksonville State team. The Tigers won the first two before falling behind in the rubber match. They were able to come all the way back to make it a one-run game in the ninth before the Gamecocks closed it out.
LSU started 2-0 against Indiana before dropping the second game of a double header Saturday. The Tigers had handled the Hoosiers’ bats for most of the weekend before allowing the seven runs in game three.
Rebels Take Series From No.1 Louisville
It was an opening weekend to remember in Oxford, MS. The Rebels welcomed the number one team Louisville Cardinals to Swayze Field in one of the premier series of the weekend.
Louisville’s ace Reid Detmers showed why he will potentially be the first pitcher taken in the MLB Draft. He threw five strong innings to shut down the Rebel offense and earn the win. The Ole Miss bats wouldn’t be silenced forever.
FIRE. US. UP. @Baker_Cael12
😤
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— Ole Miss Baseball (@OleMissBSB) February 15, 2020
Ole Miss erupted for eight runs Saturday and seven runs Sunday. The power of JUCO transfer Cael Baker was felt all weekend, especially on Saturday. The Ohio native had a four for four day with two home runs and a double to go with his four RBIs.
Sunday’s rubber match came down to some solid pitching by a pair of Ole Miss freshmen. The California duo of Derek Diamond and Wes Burton combined for eight innings of six-hit baseball.
Vanderbilt Tumbles in MLB4 Tournament
Vanderbilt’s opening weekend went far from planned heading into the MLB4 Tournament. The Commodores let two games slip away from them late in the game as they struggled to hold on to slim leads.
Vanderbilt got the rematch from last year’s College World Series final. No.13 Michigan entered the top of the ninth inning down 3-2. One swing of the bat from Matthew Schmidt changed all that on a two-run home run to give the Wolverines the win late in the game.
The second game against UCONN went much better for the Commodores. It took a while to get the offense going but a four-run sixth inning was all they needed to take down the Huskies. Sophomore phenom Kumar Rocker set the tone early, striking out nine over six innings and giving up just one run.
The final game of the weekend was another thriller against Cal Poly. The Mustangs took a 3-0 lead that the Commodores were able to shave to 3-2 in the sixth. A big bottom of the inning gave Cal Poly a comfortable 7-2 lead.
Vanderbilt got a huge five-run eighth inning, tying the game off Harrison Ray’s three-run homerun then taking the lead in the top of the ninth. They were unable to hold on though as a pair of Cal Poly sac flies in the bottom of the inning saw another one slip away.
Kentucky Gets Swept by TCU
The only bad outcome of the weekend came from Kentucky’s series at TCU. The Horned Frogs were more than the Wildcats could handle as they took the three-game sweep.
Kentucky had all kinds of offensive struggles on a weekend they led the Horned Frogs for just one inning. They were held to one run in each of the two opening games before finally busting open for five runs in the final game. TCU, however, unleashed 10 runs of their own and were no match.
Sophomore Trae Harmon was one of the few bright spots for the Wildcats. He made the most of his one start in the final game of the season and provided Kentucky with what little offense they could muster over the weekend. He went two for five with a home run and three RBIs.
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