SEC Baseball Tournament 2019: LSU Wins, Tennessee Upset by Auburn

The 2019 SEC baseball tournament kicked off on Tuesday with a single-elimination quadruple-header.

Leading up to Selection Monday next week, D1Baseball.com currently projects the SEC to get 11 teams into this year's NCAA tournament. The only team playing in the conference tournament currently outside the projected field of 64 is South Carolina.

The remaining 10 teams all appear to be pretty secure, though that could change in a hurry if upsets occur in other conferences, reducing the number of at-large bids available.

With so much at stake at the start of the SEC tournament, here are the results from Tuesday's four games.

SEC Tournament Bracket

SEC Tournament First-Round Scores

No. 6 Texas A&M def. No. 11 Florida: 8-7 (10 innings)

No. 7 Mississippi def. No. 10 Missouri: 2-1

No. 8 Auburn def. No. 9 Tennessee: 5-3

No. 5 LSU def. No. 12 South Carolina: 8-6

No. 5 LSU 8, No. 12 South Carolina 6

The 12-seed remains winless in SEC tournament history despite South Carolina laying on five runs in the second inning and holding a 5-3 lead until the fifth inning. 

LSU started the scoring in the bottom of the first with a solo home run by shortstop Josh Smith, who finished the night with two hits, two RBI, three runs and a walk. And then came the Gamecocks' five-run top of the second inning, which included an infield single, catcher's interference and a hit-by-pitch. 

The Tigers' freshman starting pitcher Cole Henry was run out of the game after just 1.2 innings pitched. Henry hadn't pitched since April 19 due to issues with his elbow. Following his exit, though, the Gamecocks'  only managed two total hits the rest of the night.

Devin Fontenot was credited with the win after pitching 4.1 innings and striking out four against only one hit, two walks and no earned runs. 

With the loss, South Carolina's season ends at 28-28. It marks the program's worst overall finish since 1996.

LSU will take on Mississippi State at 9 p.m. ET Wednesday. 

No. 8 Auburn 5, No. 9 Tennessee 3

Edouard Julien and Judd Ward provided all of the offense for Auburn in a 5-3 win over Tennessee.

After falling into an early 1-0 hole, Julien put the Tigers ahead with a two-run double in the bottom of the second inning.

The Vols would respond with the tying run in the top of the fifth inning, though that merely set the stage for Ward to go to work. The sophomore's bunt single scored Julien to put Auburn back on top. He capped off his night with a two-run blast off Camden Sewell two innings later.

Those five runs would be plenty for Auburn's pitching staff. Starter Elliott Anderson battled control problems with four walks but settled in to allow two runs on three hits with six strikeouts in four innings.

After Will Morrison came in to get Luc Lipcius out, Bailey Horn halted any momentum Tennessee was hoping to build. The redshirt sophomore allowed one run on one hit over four innings.

The Volunteers did threaten in the ninth inning when Zach Daniels hit a solo homer to cut the deficit to 5-3. They brought the tying run to the plate when Connor Pavolony was hit by a pitch with one out. Christian Scott nearly tied it with a deep fly ball to right field that Steven Williams caught in front of the wall.

Auburn advances to take on No. 1 seed Vanderbilt on Wednesday. The Commodores won 18 of their final 19 games during the regular season, including a three-game sweep against Auburn from April 25 to 27.

No. 7 Mississippi 2, No. 10 Missouri 1

Mississippi rode two fifth-inning runs and an outstanding pitching performance from Will Ethridge to a 2-1 victory over Missouri.

Ethridge didn't show any signs of fatigue or nerves in his first career SEC tournament start. The junior allowed just one run on seven hits with six strikeouts over seven innings.

With Ethridge taking care of things on the mound, Thomas Dillard got Ole Miss' offense going with an RBI double to tie the score at one. Three batters later, Dillard scored the go-ahead run on Cole Zabowski's single off Missouri left-hander Jacob Cantleberry.

Missouri had a chance to tie the game in the top of the ninth inning with two men on base. Rebels closer Ryan Olenek was able to finish off the win by getting Thomas Broyles to strike out looking at a changeup on the outside corner.

Ole Miss is off to a good start as it tries to defend the SEC tournament title. A matchup with No. 2 Arkansas won't faze the Rebels, who took two out of three games when they met in Fayetteville at the end of March.

No. 6 Texas A&M 8, No. 11 Florida 7 (10)

A wild back-and-forth game to start the SEC tournament went in Texas A&M's favor with an 8-7 win over Florida in 10 innings.

The Aggies won when Cam Blake scored on Jonathan Ducoff's walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th inning.

After Texas A&M took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the third, Florida scored five unanswered runs over the next five innings to take a two-run lead. The Aggies responded in the bottom of the eighth with two homers, including a three-run blast from Ducoff.

Florida managed to tie the game in the top of the ninth on Austin Langworthy's RBI triple and Nelson Maldonado's RBI single.

Neither bullpen was particularly effective in the game. The relievers combined to allow eight earned runs on nine hits in 7.1 innings.

Texas A&M advances to the double-elimination part of the bracket with a matchup against No. 3 seed Georgia set for Wednesday. The two teams didn't square off during the regular season.

The Gators end their regular season with a 33-24 record and will anxiously await Monday's selection show. They haven't missed the NCAA tournament since 2007.