SEC Baseball Tournament 2015: Thursday Schedule and Bracket Predictions

If the first two days are any indication, Thursday's slate of games at the 2015 SEC tournament should be worthy of your time and attention.

Five of the seven games, including all four Wednesday, were decided by a single run. We nearly had a colossal upset when Auburn came within a run of knocking off top-seeded LSU. We saw second-seeded Vanderbilt force extra innings after being down to its last out and then win on a walk-off home run. It's been a wild ride for a conference that's justifiably considered the best in the land.

Now, believe it or not, the real fun begins. Thursday begins elimination play in Hoover, where the four teams that came up just short in the second round will attempt to save their tournament livelihood.

Seventh-seeded Missouri and 11th-seeded Alabama will get things underway bright and early. The Tigers were left shell-shocked in their 7-6 loss to Vanderbilt. After building a 6-2 lead thanks to a four-run fifth inning, Missouri's pitching staff slowly bled runs to allow the Commodores back in.

Butch Dill/Associated Press

Home runs by Jeren Kendall in the seventh and Dansby Swanson in the eighth put them within one run, pinch hitter Penn Murfee helped knock through the tying run in the eighth and Rhett Wiseman completed the collapse with a walk-off bomb in the 10th.

“I’m real proud of the effort, and I thought we had it," Missouri coach Tim Jamieson said, per Matt Nestor of the Columbia Daily Tribune, "but that’s the way the game goes. It’s pretty cruel."

Alabama's 4-3 loss to Texas A&M was nearly as heartbreaking. The Tide built a 3-0 lead in the top of the third, lost it all by the bottom and then played a nail-biting last six innings that came down to the wire. A&M pulled ahead in the bottom of the eighth on a Nick Banks single. Alabama nearly rallied to tie the game in the top of the ninth, but a runner was thrown out trying to score with one out, and the Tide left the bases loaded with two.

Coach Mitch Gaspard said, per Cecil Hurt of the Tuscaloosa News:

"

Absolutely, you send the runner to the plate in that situation. You've got the No. 9 spot coming up. You're trying to make them make a play, and that's where you've got to tip your hat to them. But it's easy to second guess. If you hold him, then you are sitting there asking yourself “why didn't I send him?'

"

Still, no team walked away from Wednesday with more regret than Auburn. The Tigers burst out of the gate with a five-run top of the first, and they were leading 8-3 through four innings before things fell apart in the fifth. There was no big blast that did it, either. LSU just kept piling on hit after hit after hit, putting up six runs to take the lead and shutting Auburn out the rest of the way.

Auburn star Jordan Ebert said, per Wesley Sinor of AL.com:

"

For our team, it's more, "Hey we can play with these guys." If that's the best team in the country, I think we have a good shot to do some things that a lot of people didn't think we could do. I hope and think our team is taking this as a positive and I think this really shows we're better than we think we are.

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The Tigers move on to play a Florida team that knows a little bit about collapsing. The Gators allowed three runs in the ninth inning to lose a 7-6 matchup to Arkansas. 

The night will be capped off by a pair of matchups in the winner's bracket. Vanderbilt and Texas A&M will try to build momentum after overcoming upset bids Wednesday and give themselves some breathing room. The two teams did not play a series during the regular season, so it'll be interesting to see how these two top-tier SEC outfits feel one another out.

Both teams are playing for national seeding. Don't look for either side to let up.

Carson Fulmer, a potential No. 1 overall pick in June, will likely take the bump for Vanderbilt. Fulmer has posted an 11-1 record with a 1.51 ERA. He's essentially Vandy's "NOPE" button.

A&M will counter with Matt Kent, who also has only one loss on the season but has far worse underlying numbers. Kent needs to pitch the game of his life for the Aggies to have a shot.

LSU hopes it'll have a far easier time against Arkansas than it did Auburn. The Tigers are looking to capture the nation's top overall seed, and any more signs of weakness in Hoover might make the committee start looking elsewhere. Given the way they rallied and the way their pitching staff got it together down the stretch, things are looking good for another LSU win.