The final series for tune ups before SEC teams enter conference play commenced over the weekend. Most teams took care of business and beefed up their resumes in the final weekend. We’ll take a look around the weekend below.
Weekly Wrap-Up
- Alabama: 4-1
- Midweek: 2-0 vs South Alabama, Jacksonville State
- Weekend: 2-1 Stetson
- No.1 Arkansas: 2-1 @ Louisiana Tech
- Auburn: 3-1
- Midweek: 1-0 @ UAB
- Weekend: 2-1 vs Arkansas Little Rock
- No.5 Florida: 4-1
- Midweek: 2-0 vs Georgia State, Stetson
- Weekend: 2-1 vs Jacksonville
- Georgia: 4-0
- Midweek: 1-0 vs Georgia Southern
- Weekend: 3-0 vs Lipscomb
- Kentucky: 4-0
- Midweek: 1-0 vs Western Kentucky
- Weekend: 3-0 vs Georgia State
- No.19 LSU: 5-0
- Midweek: 2-0 vs Texas Southern, @ New Orleans
- Weekend: 3-0 vs UTSA
- No.4 Ole Miss: 3-1
- Midweek: 1-0 vs Alcorn State
- Weekend: 2-1 vs Louisiana-Monroe
- No.3 Mississippi State: 5-0
- Midweek: 2-0 vs Grambling State, Louisiana
- Weekend: 3-0 vs Eastern Michigan
- Missouri: 4-1
- Midweek: 1-0 @ Saint Louis
- Weekend: 3-1 @ Illinois State
- No.16 South Carolina: 1-3
- Midweek: 1-0 @ The Citadel
- Weekend: 0-3 @ No.10 Texas
- No.13 Tennessee: 3-1
- Midweek: 0-1 @ Charlotte
- Weekend: 3-0 vs UNC Greensboro
- Texas A&M: 5-0
- Midweek: 2-0 vs Texas A&M CC, Prairie View
- Weekend: 3-0 vs Samford
- No.2 Vanderbilt: 3-1
- Midweek: 1-0 vs Memphis
- Weekend: 2-1 @ No.14 Oklahoma State
All but South Carolina was able to win their final non-conference series of the year. It’s the strongest performance in a weekend by the SEC with 13 of 14 teams winners on the weekend. Vanderbilt highlighted the weekend with a huge series win on the road at Oklahoma State.
Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State and Texas A&M all finished the week with unblemished records. Texas A&M after a rocky start has now won 11 in a row including a road win against Tuesday on Tuesday this week. LSU and Mississippi State used some walk-off wins to hold on to perfect weekends. Late inning heroics seemed to be a theme for several teams in the SEC.
There was little change in the rankings. The top 4 teams have remained stagnant since week 2 and the top five repeats itself from last week. South Carolina did drop a few spots due to the sweep by Texas, while Tennessee and LSU to move up a couple spots.
- No.1 Arkansas: 12-1
- No.2 Vanderbilt: 12-2
- No.3 Mississippi State: 13-3
- No.4 Ole Miss: 13-3
- No.5 Florida: 13-4
- No.13 Tennessee: 14-3 +2
- No.16 South Carolina: 11-3 -4
- No.19 LSU: 14-3 +2
Vanderbilt Takes Series From Oklahoma State
In the conference’s biggest series of the weekend, Vanderbilt travelled to Stillwater, OK to take a series from the Cowboys. It was the Commodores first road series win over a ranked team in nearly three years, beating then No.19 Mississippi State during a March 16-18 series in 2018.
Vanderbilt used a pair of Saturday double-header wins to do it. They would fall on Sunday but still had an outstanding showing. The pair of ace’s in Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter suffocated the Cowboys bats for most of the first two games. They allowed just four hits over 14 combined innings and no runs.
facing his best competition of the season thus far, Kumar Rocker was…still Kumar Rocker
8 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 9 K pic.twitter.com/V6zyiEQATi
— Céspedes Family BBQ (@CespedesBBQ) March 13, 2021
A lopsided game two boosted the numbers of what was a loud offensive weekend for the bats. Vanderbilt scored 29 runs on 31 hits during the series. Isaiah Thomas led the way offensively with three homeruns and a double during a 5-for-12 weekend.
Alex Box Miracles Win Series for LSU
On a weekend full of walk-offs and late inning heroics, there were none greater than the UTSA vs LSU series. The Tigers won all three games with their final at-bats to get the sweep of the Roadrunners. Few series can replicate the magic at Alex Box Stadium this weekend.
Opening night was a pitcher’s duel that took a 1-1 tie to the bottom of the eighth. Jaden Hill had bounced back from a horrendous start last week to go 6.2 innings of scoreless baseball. Some struggles finding the plate and fielding errors by UTSA allowed LSU to get two and hold on to the 3-1 win.
Saturday’s game went to 13 innings. UTSA clawed back from 4-0 early to tie it in the ninth and send it to extras. They took a three run lead in the 10th but LSU would use a three-run homerun to tie it at 7-7. In the 12th UTSA again took a lead at 9-7 but again LSU answered with a two-run homerun. In the 13th inning LSU once again got a homerun to win 10-9.
WALK OFF IN EXTRAS! Epic game between LSU and UTSA pic.twitter.com/sDRyWGDthq
— College Baseball Hub (@CollegeBSBHub) March 14, 2021
Sunday’s game was much the same as Saturday. This time LSU jumped out to a 9-2 lead. UTSA scored two in the 7th and five in the 9th to again send it to extras. And again, like Saturday, UTSA took a three run lead in the 10th. LSU charged back with a two-run homerun and solo shot in back to back at-bats to send it to the 11th. LSU took advantage of the new extra innings rule to get the leadoff runner on second home to win it 13-12.
South Carolina Suffers First Losses
Few teams had started the season hotter than the Gamecocks. Carolina had cruised to an 11-0 start including a two-game sweep over their rival Clemson. The offense had been dominant knocking double digit score totals in five of those games.
Reality settled in for the club in Austin, TX this weekend. Carolina hit a brick wall in Texas who had won both series since the opening weekend and were red hot. The Longhorns held the Gamecocks to just six runs on the weekend. Carolina didn’t lead for an inning the entire weekend.
The first two games were closely contested but Texas’s starting pitching was too much. Texas’s top talent Ty Madden held Carolina to one run on seven innings on Friday. Tristan Stevens continued the dominance with six scoreless innings Saturday. Sunday’s game was never really close as Texas got up 8-1 early and never looked back. It won’t get any easier for Carolina who gets No.2 Vanderbilt this weekend.
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