SEC Baseball Tournament 2019: Friday Schedule and Bracket Predictions
If Wednesday's SEC tournament game between LSU and Mississippi State was any indication, fans better settle in for another long night on Friday at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
After a 17-inning marathon that lasted six hours, 43 minutes, the Tigers and Bulldogs are set to play again just two days later. This time, the stakes will be higher as the loser will be eliminated from the SEC tournament.
LSU lost Wednesday's long game, but it then rebounded to beat Auburn on Thursday, winning on a walk-off wild pitch/error combination that allowed two runs to score. Meanwhile, Mississippi State dropped a 1-0 game to top-seeded Vanderbilt.
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That set the stage for an elimination game between the Tigers and Bulldogs, who will be playing Friday's final game, giving the teams some much-needed rest during the day after an eventful week for both.
Friday Schedule, Picks
All times ET. Picks in bold.
No. 2 Arkansas vs. No. 7 Ole Miss, 4 p.m., SEC Network
No. 5 LSU vs. No. 4 Mississippi State, 30 minutes after conclusion of previous game, SEC Network
Friday Predictions
It's not easy when you play a 17-inning game and then take on the No. 2 team in the D1Baseball.com Top 25 poll the next night, but that's what happened for Mississippi State this week.
The Bulldogs lost 1-0 to Vanderbilt on Thursday in a matchup of the Nos. 2 and 3 teams in the poll. Perhaps fatigue played a factor for Mississippi State, which gave up a second-inning RBI single to Julian Infante for the game's lone run.
"A little frustration maybe, out of the offense, but they're competing. ... We're just not getting that big hit right now," Bulldogs coach Chris Lemonis said, according to HailState.com's Greg Campbell.
But Mississippi State is in a good spot to bounce back against LSU, with whom it has split its four games this year. Although the Bulldogs' offense went quiet against the Commodores, they had scored six or more runs in their previous seven games. That bodes well for their bats to get back on track against the Tigers, who they scored six runs against on Wednesday.
Expect Mississippi State to swing the bats better and notch another victory over LSU. Then, it will have another chance to topple Vanderbilt on Saturday. The Bulldogs and Tigers should play a close game, but Mississippi State will come up with the key hits it couldn't get on Thursday vs. Vandy.
In Friday's opening matchup, Arkansas will look to bounce back after a 3-1 loss to Georgia when it takes on Ole Miss for the second time in the tournament. The Razorbacks notched a 5-3 win over the Rebels on Wednesday.
"It wasn't exactly a really clean game by either team, but I felt like our bullpen came in and did a really nice job kind of keeping where it was," Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said, according to John Thomas of ArkansasRazorbacks.com.
After losing to Arkansas, Ole Miss rebounded for a 1-0 win over Texas A&M on Thursday. The winner of the rematch between the Razorbacks and Rebels will advance to play Georgia on Saturday.
That will be Arkansas, which is the No. 5 team in the D1Baseball.com Top 25 poll. The Razorbacks are poised to have a better offensive showing than Thursday, when they tallied only one run on five hits. Expect them to break out and move on to a rematch against Georgia.
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