SEC Weekend Preview (Feb. 24th-26th)

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It was a pretty good first weekend for SEC baseball, but there is still a lot that we need to learn before we get into conference play. 

Ole Miss may have had the best weekend in all of college baseball as they swept the number 9 team in the country in East Carolina. They went from 27 to 21 in the NCBWA rankings. 

While Kentucky got swept by number nine North Carolina, they were competitive in every game and showed some resilience. 

Georgia had the worst weekend in the SEC by far as they were embarrassed at home by College of Charleston in 2-of-3 games. 

Here is a look at my SEC baseball power rankings after week one: 

Power Rankings: 

1. Florida 
2. Ole Miss
3. South Carolina
4. Vanderbilt
5. LSU
6. Texas A&M
7. Mississippi State
8. Kentucky 
9. Arkansas 
10. Auburn
11. Alabama
12. Tennessee 
13. Missouri 
14. Georgia 

Week two is highlighted by the primetime matchup in Gainesville, Fla. between number two Florida and number 17 Miami. The offense for the Gators looked pretty strong in the first week, but the pitching staff is still a work in progress. They’ll need to be on their A-game this weekend against the Hurricanes; although, their opening weekend wasn’t perfect as they lost 17-6 to Rutgers on Sunday. 

LSU got off to a great start to the season winning their first two games by a combined score of 15-0. Unfortunately for them, I only watched their loss to New Orleans, which was an ugly game. Alex Lange and Jared Poche are going to be tough to beat on Friday and Saturday this year, but the defense needs to be more consistent. They’ll be tested this weekend as Maryland comes into town. 

Things don’t get much easier for Ole Miss in week two as they host an undefeated UNC Wilmington team. The Rebels might be out to the hottest start in the country after sweeping then number 10 East Carolina last weekend and then beating Arkansas State 16-4 on Tuesday. They’ll be in top 10 consideration if they play that well against UNC Wilmington this weekend. 

Missouri had a rough start losing their first game of the season to Eastern Michigan, but they bounced back and scored 27 runs in their next game and finished the weekend 3-1. They’ll play four more games this weekend, including one game against Houston. Another 3-1 weekend could give this team a lot of confidence. 

The Gamecocks of South Carolina have had some close games to start the season, but they’ve lost just once in a 1-0 game to UNC Greensboro. They also have a big weekend with four games starting Thursday against Kansas State and then three with Wright State. Clarke Schmidt, Will Crowe and Adam Hill form a solid pitching staff. 

Nobody in the country has gotten off to a more deflating start to the season than Kentucky as they already have three 1-run losses. Hopefully they can get a few wins on the board this weekend against St. Joseph’s, Ole Dominion and Delaware. 

The Arkansas pitching staff gave up just 2 runs last weekend in a sweep over Miami (Ohio). We’ll see if they can continue that trend against a solid Bryant team this weekend. 

Tennessee will travel to San Diego to play Seton Hall and San Diego State. I’m still not sure about this team, but we should get a better idea when they play San Diego State on Friday night. 

Pepperdine will travel to College Station to take on Texas A&M, and both teams will enter the weekend series undefeated. The Aggies scored 15 runs or more in each of their three games against Bowling Green last weekend, so we’ll see if the offense maintains that pace this weekend. 

Alabama will host a pretty good Oral Roberts team, while Auburn should continue to get some practice in against Holy Cross. 

After a rough start to the season for Vanderbilt losing a 1-run game against San Diego in which they botched an opportunity to at least tie the game in the ninth, they’ve bounced back to win three straight. They’ll be back home this weekend in what should be a clean sweep of UIC. 

The Georgia Bulldogs are in disarray right now after losing 2-of-3 to College of Charleston and then losing a 1-run game to Mercer. Now they’ll travel to face Georgia Southern in three very important early season games.  

After a pretty good start to the season for Mississippi State with a quality win over Texas Tech, the Bulldogs dropped a head scratcher to Morehead State on Tuesday 13-8. They’ll try to pick themselves up this weekend with two games against Indiana State and two against Marist. This should be a 4-win weekend for the Bulldogs.