Here is your SEC Recap for April 17th.
#3 South Carolina 5 #1 Vanderbilt 1
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Trailing by a pair of runs, third ranked South Carolina batted around in the seventh inning and scored four times to rally for a 5-3 victory over top ranked Vanderbilt to clinch a weekend SEC baseball series. The Gamecocks are 28-7 and 12-3 in the SEC while Vanderbilt drops to 32-5 and 11-4 in conference play. Sophomore right-hander Matt Price worked three scoreless and struck out seven batters to pick up the win and improve to 4-2 on the year.
Sunday afternoon’s game was played in front of 8,242 fans, the third straight sellout at Carolina Stadium and seventh of the year. The three-game series attendance was 24,726, the best three-game mark in Carolina Stadium history.
South Carolina Recap
Vanderbilt Recap
Junior Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) belted a go-ahead two-run homer in the seventh and blasted a grand slam in the eighth to propel No. 4 Florida (28-9/11-4 SEC) to a 14-7 victory over Georgia (19-18/9-6 SEC) in the rubber match of the weekend set at Foley Field on Sunday afternoon. After the Bulldogs rallied from a 6-1 deficit with two runs in the fifth and four in the sixth to take a 7-6 lead, the Gators responded with eight unanswered runs in their final three at bats to collect their fifth-straight series triumph over the Bulldogs.
UF’s seventh-consecutive SEC road series success puts head coach Kevin O’Sullivan’s club one game behind No. 3 South Carolina (28-7/12-3 SEC) in the league standings and tied with No. 1 Vanderbilt (32-5/11-4 SEC) for second place both overall and in the Eastern Division. UF’s 11-4 (.733) record at the mid-point of the 30-game conference schedule is its best since the 1998 squad was 11-3 (.786) through five series.
Mississippi State 5 #13 Arkansas 3
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Junior right-hander Caleb Reed sparkled in relief as the Mississippi State baseball team rallied to a 5-3 victory over No. 13 Arkansas in a Southeastern Conference baseball game played Sunday afternoon at Baum Stadium.
Reed threw 5.1 innings of scoreless relief as the Bulldogs blew past an early 3-1 deficit. The victory was sweet for a Maroon and White squad, which had dropped a heart-breaking 6-5 decision Friday and also suffered a 6-1 setback on Saturday.
With the win, MSU improved to 22-14 overall and 6-9 in league play at the official midway mark of the conference schedule. While the Bulldogs remain in fifth place in the Western Division standings, the win did mean MSU stays within two games of division leaders Arkansas, Alabama and Ole Miss. Arkansas fell into that tie, while dropping its record to 26-9 and 8-7.
Mississippi State Recap
Arkansas Recap
BATON ROUGE — LSU starter Ben Alsup fired 8.2 superb innings, while left fielder Raph Rhymes doubled twice and knocked in a pair of runs to lead the 21st-ranked Tigers (23-14, 4-11 SEC) to a 3-2 victory over Auburn (20-15, 7-8 SEC) in Game 3 Sunday at Alex Box Stadium.
Alsup (5-3) was on his way to a complete-game shutout before he was charged with two runs on a pop fly that dropped in the outfield for a single after right fielder Mason Katz lost the ball in the sun.
The senior right-hander, who limited Auburn to only five hits and a walk, earned the victory nonetheless when right-hander Matty Ott struck out first baseman Kevin Patterson to end the game. Ott was credited with his fifth save of the season.
OXFORD, Miss. – Just like the previous two nights it came down to holding the Wildcats off late, but this time the Rebels had to put together a rally of their own to go back in front in the seventh as Ole Miss (23-14, 8-7 SEC) swept Kentucky (17-20, 2-13 SEC) with a 6-5 win on Sunday.
The Rebels downed the Wildcats 3-2 on Friday night and 12-10 on Saturday to post the first SEC sweep of the season. It also marked the first SEC home sweep for the Rebels since taking all three games from fifth-ranked LSU the final weekend of April in 2010.
Eric Callender (1-0) picked up his first win of the season in relief as he allowed three runs on three hits with a strikeout in 2.0 innings of work. The senior gave up the go-ahead runs in the sixth inning, but shut Kentucky down after that to allow his team the chance to rally for the win.
