SEC Baseball Tournament 2016: Final Four Schedule and Bracket Predictions

The SEC baseball tournament is down to four teams.

After two games that ended by the mercy rule on Friday, the Texas A&M Aggies and Florida Gators steamrolled their respective opponents for a chance at a spot in the SEC title game.

The Gators are the defending conference champions. They know what it takes to get to this position, as do their opponents, the LSU Tigers. They were back-to-back champions before Florida dethroned them last year.

But the Ole Miss Rebels might be the hottest team in this final four. Not only did Ole Miss win three straight games to reach the semifinals, but even scored double-digit runs in back-to-back games. The Rebels will take on an Aggies team that responded to an earlier loss to Vanderbilt on Wednesday to win 13-3 on Friday.

Matchup	Time (ET)	TV
No. 7 Ole Miss vs. No. 3 Texas A&M	1 p.m.	SEC Network
No. 5 LSU vs. No. 4 Florida	TBD	SEC Network

Ole Miss vs. Texas A&M

The Rebels have been a good team all year. They're 43-16 for a reason. But the level of talent in the SEC is insane, which explains why they were the No. 7 seed in the tournament.

Ole Miss has been scoring runs at an absurd rate during the tournament, outscoring its three opponents 27-10. The Rebels look like the strongest team remaining in the field.

“Our guys are just going out there and having quality at bats," Ole Miss catcher Henri Lartigue said, per SECSports.com, "That’s all we ask out of everyone in the line up. We were just getting some really good pitches to hit. Guys like J.B. (Woodman) and Colby (Bortles) were able to put good swings on the balls and not miss."

But while the Rebels are playing at a high level, Texas A&M has to weigh heavy on their minds. The Aggies and Rebels met for only one three-game series near the end of the year, and Texas A&M won two of three. Those two wins were by a combined score of 17-6 at College Station, and was much needed after closing the regular season by losing three of five.

Texas A&M handled Vanderbilt in convincing fashion and are looking for its first SEC title in program history.

“This is what I do for a living," A&M head coach Rob Childress said, per SECSports.com.

"

I stress for nine innings, sometimes 14 innings or however many innings we have to play. There’s never really any time to relax. The only time to relax is when that last out is squeezed by your first baseman, and you know the ballgame is over and you have it in the books.

"

Even as the No. 7 seed, the Rebels look like the team to beat. Momentum matters in a tournament of this magnitude and the Rebels have handled business convincingly. This game shouldn't be a high-scoring affair as was their last two, but Ole Miss should beat Texas A&M and move on to the finals.

LSU vs. Florida

It's the battle of the last two SEC champions, and it's a rematch of the longest game in SEC tournament history.

The Gators are coming off a 12-run performance on Friday against Mississippi State and benefited from a four-hit, four-RBI performance from first baseman JJ Schwarz in the 12-2 victory.

But the defending champions have tasted defeat in this tournament once before, and it was a 14-inning game against this same LSU team. In that game, the Tigers got an 11-strikeout performance from Alex Lange. LSU got 6.2 strong innings from Jared Poche the next night in a 6-2 win over Mississippi State.

LSU head coach Paul Mainieri and others talked about how strong of a performance his team displayed against the Bulldogs, per LSU Baseball:

Florida's pitching was stellar on Friday thanks to Alex Faedo's seven-inning performance for his 12th win of the season.

"Alex was really good tonight, pitched a seven inning complete game and saved our bullpen for tomorrow," Gators head coach Kevin O'Sullivan said, per Daniel Apple of FloridaGators.com.

Florida has responded well so far after that loss to LSU, and that trend should continue on Saturday. The Gators' bats were connecting on Friday, and that type of performance should carry over.