Here is your SEC Recap for May 2nd.
Auburn 13 #7 Arkansas 2
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Grant Dayton struck out 10 in what was a brilliant outing by the junior southpaw and the Auburn bats erupted for 13 runs on 16 hits to claim a 13-2 win over No. 7 Arkansas at Baum Stadium on Sunday and move to within two games of first place in the SEC West with three conference weekends remaining, two of which Auburn will play at home. Auburn’s record stands at 30-15 overall and 12-9 SEC while Arkansas remains in first in the SEC West with a 35-10, 14-7 SEC mark.
"Today was a very important game for a lot of reasons. We talk about `Championship Sunday’ and in my opinion it starts with the guy you got on the mound," Auburn Head Coach John Pawlowski said. "Grant Dayton was outstanding today. Between him and Sean Ray we only walked two guys all day. We kept them off balance. This is a big win for us in this environment."
#10 Florida 13 #11 LSU 6
Freshman Brian Johnson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) picked up the victory and belted his first career grand slam and senior Matt den Dekker (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) went 5-for-5 with four RBI and four runs as No. 6 Florida (31-11/15-6 SEC) finished a weekend sweep of No. 9 LSU (32-13/11-10 SEC), 13-6, on Sunday afternoon at McKethan Stadium. It was the Gators’ first regular-season sweep of the Bayou Bengals since 1996 and just their second over the Tigers in school history.
Florida has now captured five-straight games over top-10 opponents and improved to 23-3 (.885) at home this season. The Gators remain one game back of No. 3 South Carolina (34-9/16-5 SEC) in the league standings since the Gamecocks took the rubber game over Alabama this afternoon in Columbia.
#13 South Carolina 20 Alabama 15
Columbia, S.C. – South Carolina pounded out a season-high 25 hits setting a Carolina Stadium record for hits in a game with Kyle Enders driving in a career-high five runs on five hits and Brady Thomas batting 3-for-3 with four RBI as well as the Gamecocks defeated Alabama 20-15 on Sunday afternoon at Carolina Stadium. The Gamecocks are 34-9 and 16-5 in the SEC while the loss drops Alabama to 28-17 and 9-12 in conference play. Carolina has now won all seven SEC series this year and 10 in a row dating back to last season. The Gamecocks return to action on Wednesday hosting Winthrop at 7 p.m. at Carolina Stadium.
South Carolina leads the SEC by one game over Florida after this weekend’s series. Sunday’s attendance was 8,006 for the afternoon. The three-game total attendance of 24,204 was the largest for a weekend series at Carolina Stadium. The previous high was 23,220 vs. Georgia from May 14-16, 2009.
South Carolina Recap
Alabama Recap
#17 Ole Miss 19 Mississippi State 11
STARKVILLE, Miss. – The Rebels capitalized on timely hits and Bulldog errors on Sunday as No. 14 Ole Miss (33-13, 14-7 SEC) defeated Mississippi State (20-23, 5-16 SEC) by a score of 19-11 in a game shortened by curfew.
The seven-inning win gave the Rebels a series sweep of Mississippi State and the program’s first sweep of the Bulldogs in Starkville since the 1972 season. It also marked the second consecutive sweep in conference play and ran the Rebels’ win streak out to 10 games.
It also pushed Ole Miss to the top of the SEC West standings as Arkansas dropped a series to Auburn leaving both teams with a 14-7 record in conference play heading into a showdown this coming weekend in Oxford.
Ole Miss Recap
Mississippi State Recap
Tennessee 3 Kentucky 1
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – After Kentucky and Tennessee combined to hit 12 home runs in the first two games of the series, the Volunteers used pitching, defense and small-ball to claim a 3-1 victory over the Wildcats on a hot and humid Sunday afternoon at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. The win gives UT its second straight Southeastern Conference series victory as it has now won four of its last five league contests.
"Our pitching was outstanding today," UT Head Coach Todd Raleigh said. "Steven Gruver gave us an unbelievable start, Will Locante did a great job and (Steve) Crnkovich came in with two on, nobody out and got their three and four hitters to get out of it. Today was certainly tough, but it was a great win for us. The wind was blowing hard and runs were hard to come by, but we scrapped and just did a heck of a job.
Tennessee Recap
Kentucky Recap
Georgia at #18 Vanderbilt (CCD/Rain)
