SEC Baseball Tournament 2019: Tuesday Schedule and Bracket Predictions

Three months and over 50 games later, the deepest conference in all of college baseball has reached the postseason.

Hoover Metropolitan Stadium will host the 2019 SEC Baseball Tournament, which includes 12 of the league's 14 teams. The tournament begins with a single-elimination round Tuesday and features three programs ranked in D1Baseball's latest Top 25.

No. 13 Texas A&M opens the action against Florida, then defending champion and No. 22 Ole Miss takes on Missouri. Sixteenth-ranked LSU rounds out the Top 25 teams in action.

The winners of Tuesday's four matchups will advance to the double-elimination portion of the tournament.

SEC Baseball Tournament Schedule

Tuesday, May 21

No. 11 Florida vs. No. 6 Texas A&M, 10:30 a.m. ET (SEC Network)
No. 10 Missouri vs. No. 7 Ole Miss, 2 p.m. ET (SEC Network)
No. 9 Tennessee vs. No. 8 Auburn, 5:30 p.m. ET (SEC Network)
No. 12 South Carolina vs. No. 5 LSU, 9 p.m. ET (SEC Network)

Predictions

Game 1 pits an NCAA tournament hopeful in Florida against a Texas A&M squad trying to host a regional.

The 33-23 Gators could make the 64-team field anyway but are looking to pad their postseason resume. They'll send out Tommy Mace, who has allowed at least four runs in five straight starts yet wanted the chance to start this contest.

Florida must be able to counter Texas A&M's recent string of excellent pitching, though. The Aggies have surrendered four runs or fewer in seven of the last 10 games, and left-hander Aca Lacy hasn't allowed more than three in 12 of his 13 starts.

Texas A&M has the advantage in Game 1.

Next up is a clash between slumping teams. Missouri dropped five of its last six outings, including a sweep at home against Florida to end the regular season. Ole Miss snapped a six-game slide with a victory over Tennessee in the finale.

"Obviously that first game in Hoover will be a statement," Missouri boss Steve Bieser said, per Garrick Hodge of the Columbia Daily Tribune. "You have to start winning some ball games. I think getting that first win in Hoover will be a huge key for this program."

Missouri's bats had better wake up, though. Florida held the Tigers to a .170 batting average during the season-ending sweep.

Tennessee hit Will Ethridge hard last week, but he's pitched effectively late in the season. The junior makes Ole Miss the favorite in the battle to meet second-ranked Arkansas.

On the other side of the bracket, Auburn squares off with Tennessee. Both programs could be No. 2 seeds in the NCAA tournament, so a victory should solidify that billing.

Auburn will start Elliott Anderson, who is 5-2 with a 4.13 earned run average. Tennessee will counter with Garrett Stallings, an SEC All-Defense honoree who owns an 8-3 record and 3.12 ERA.

The Vols are seeking their first SEC tournament victory in 12 years―and they are trending in the right direction for that to happen. Tennessee has scored 64 runs in the last eight games, and Stallings spun a nine-inning shutout in his last start. 

LSU closes out Tuesday's action opposite South Carolina, which scuffled its way into the SEC tournament. The Gamecocks trudged to an 8-22 SEC record, which includes a 1-9 mark in series openers.

Granted, there is a wild card.

LSU will start Cole Henry, and Tuesday will be his first appearance since April 19 due to elbow soreness. Henry felt "great" after recently pitching a simulated game and will throw a maximum of three innings, per Brody A. Miller of NOLA.com.

As long as Henry doesn't have a miserable day, LSU should jump ahead early on Cam Tringali. South Carolina's freshman has given up four-plus runs in five of his seven starts.

Follow Bleacher Report writer David Kenyon on Twitter @Kenyon19_BR.