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SEC Baseball: Final week of the regular season

By Ryan Sweigart

Mar 12, 2017; Nashville, TN, USA; SEC logo on the goal post inside Bridgestone Arena prior to the championship game of the SEC Conference Tournament between the Kentucky Wildcats and the Arkansas Razorbacks. Mandatory Credit: Jim Brown-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 12, 2017; Nashville, TN, USA; SEC logo on the goal post inside Bridgestone Arena prior to the championship game of the SEC Conference Tournament between the Kentucky Wildcats and the Arkansas Razorbacks. Mandatory Credit: Jim Brown-USA TODAY Sports /
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We have reached the final weekend of the regular season of SEC baseball, and the conference is still up for grabs.

Last weekend, we previewed a top-15 matchup between LSU and Auburn. Well, (10) LSU (36-17, 18-9) dominated the series, sweeping (24) Auburn (32-21, 14-13), and moving into first place in the West.

(11) Mississippi State (34-19, 17-10) faltered on the road in Athens, losing two of three to a Georgia (23-30, 9-18) team that has now beat two top-10 opponents in a row. LSU leads Mississippi State by one game in the division.

On the other side of the conference, (5) Florida (38-14, 19-8) maintains the lead in the East. The Gators swept Alabama (19-32, 5-22), extending their conference winning streak to 10. One game behind the Gators is (7) Kentucky (37-16, 18-9), as the Wildcats are coming off a sweep against Tennessee (27-22, 7-18).

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For the regular-season conference title, Florida leads LSU and Kentucky by one game, and Mississippi State by two. This sets up an exciting weekend for SEC baseball.

LSU/Mississippi State

In the West, LSU travels to Starkville to play Mississippi State. LSU is red-hot, winning 9 of their last 11 games, including a dominant sweep over Auburn.

In his last three outings, LSU pitcher Alex Lange has given up just five earned runs over 25 1/3 innings. During this stretch, Lange has also struck out 24 batters, and has thrown 2 complete games. The Bulldogs will have to get on Lange early, which teams have not been able to do recently.

Mississippi State will also need better days from their day two and three starters. Last weekend against Georgia, McQuary and Billingsley combined for only 4.1 innings, giving up 5 ER in the process. The back end of the rotation for the Bulldogs will have to be better this weekend against LSU.

SEC East

In the East, a top-10 matchup will take place in Gainesville. No. 7 Kentucky will attempt to do what their football team hasn’t been able to do, and that is beat Florida. The Gators have been nearly unbeatable in the last three weeks, only losing a mid-week game to (25) USF.

Kentucky has the offense to get to Florida’s pitching staff, led by lead-off man Tristan Pompey. The Gators’ Alex Faedo and Brady Singer rank in the top-10 in the SEC in ERA, while Kentucky’s Evan White and Tristan Pompey are third and fourth in the conference in batting average, respectively. Pompey also leads the conference in hits, with 80.

The exciting thing about this weekend is that all four of these teams have a chance at winning the conference. Florida is in the driver’s seat, but the Gators still need to win the series against Kentucky to claim the regular-season title. Even Mississippi State has a chance at the title, although they need to sweep LSU, and get some help from Kentucky.

There is still a lot to play for this weekend in the SEC, before the conference tournament gets started on May 23rd.

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