SEC Baseball Scores: LSU, Florida Win As Mayhem Strikes

Andrew Stevenson went 4-for-6 with a run scored in LSU’s win. Photo by Madeline VeZain courtesy LSU Tigers Athletics

Certainly we’ve all been exposed to the recent run of Mayhem commercials run by AllState Insurance in which this guy named Mayhem shows up and wrecks things. The commercials are designed to sell insurance on the basic fact that we can’t plan for everything.

Expecting the unexpected, we buy insurance to help us pay for the things that we can’t plan out.

Hopefully the bulk of the SEC had some form of insurance in place to help it deal with the rash of mayhem that struck its members in midweek action.

Out of 14 games played by SEC teams on Tuesday night 10 of them ended with someone other than an SEC coming away with the win. The only squads that were immune currently rank in the Top 5 in the latest College Baseball Central Top 25 poll.

Top Teams Hold Serve

Teams in the Top 5 were immune to the midweek mayhem and avoided the upset bug that was rampant in the SEC on the night. The No. 1 LSU Tigers, led by hot bats in the bottom of the lineup, jumped all over the Tulane Green Wave 13-7. Junior center fielder Andrew Stevenson led all hitters with a 4-for-6 day at the plate while Mark Laird (Jr., RF) legged out an inside-the-park home run (1) and Jake Fraley (So., LF) drove in four runs in the win.

The No. 2 Florida Gators looked to get back to normal and jumped to a 5-1 lead early, but watched it evaporate and found themselves trailing the Stetson Hatters 6-5 heading into the eighth. However, junior left fielder Harrison Bader tied the game with an RBI single and would score as senior third baseman Josh Tobias launched his second homer of the year to take the lead as the Gators held on for a 9-6 win.

After needing to sweep a Saturday double to pull out the road series win at the Auburn Tigers this weekend, the No. 4 Vanderbilt Commodores found themselves in a four-run hole at the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders on Tuesday. Led by Dansby Swanson’s (Jr., SS) fourth homer of the year, the Dores chipped away at the deficit but still trailed 7-5 headed into the eighth when Karl Ellison (So., C) hit his first homer, a two-run shot, to tie the game. Jeren Kendall (Fr., CF) gave Vandy the lead with his first collegiate long ball and then Zander Wiel (Jr., 1B) hit a three-run double as the Dores plated seven runs on route to a 12-7 win.

The No. 5 Texas A&M Aggies didn’t take long to regain their winning ways as they ran away with an 11-1 win over the Texas-San Antonio Roadrunners on Tuesday. Freshman righty Turner Larkins allowed two hits and two walks while striking out four over six innings to improve to 3-1 on the year while Blake Allemand (Sr., SS) went 5-for-6 at the dish with a run scored and an RBI in the winning effort.

Weekend Winners Return To Reality

SEC baseball is always unpredictable on the weekend, but the teams that pulled of huge, momentum swinging wins this weekend all failed to launch in the midweek. Topping the list are the Ole Miss Rebels who were unceremoniously ripped back to reality, after a series win over No. 2 Florida this weekend.

Hotty Toddy was Humble Teddy as the UAB Blazers came to town and swept a double-header by scores of 6-1 and 3-1 at Swayze Field on Tuesday. The Rebels struggles at the dish in midweek games returned as they managed only 11 hits and two run for a .239 AVG on the day.

Next up we have the Missouri Tigers who just took 2-of-3 from No. 11 South Carolina, who couldn’t find a way to retire Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions sophomore left fielder Jerimiah Figeueroa in the late innings in an 8-3 loss to UAPB. Tigers hurler Austin Tribby (Jr., So.) surrendered a two-run homer and a bases loaded two-run single to the UAPB left fielder as he allowed five runs over the last two innings of the game.

Just two days after completed a road sweep of the Tennessee Volunteers, the Georgia Bulldogs found themselves on the wrong end of an outcome at home, falling to the Mercer Bears 12-8. While junior first baseman Zach Bowers went 4-for-5 with three RBI and a run scored for Georgia, the pitchers just had no answers for the Bears’ lineup as Kyle Lewis (So., CF) and Devin Bonin (Sr., 2B) each homered on two hit days while Lewis added three runs scored and three RBI in the win.

The Kentucky Wildcats got their first SEC wins of 2015 with a 2-1 series win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs only to get lit up by the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers for 12 runs on 16 hits. Unfortunately, this makes back-to-back games in which the Wildcat staff has allowed 12 runs. Kentucky pitchers surrendered three hits to three WKU bats as Cody Wofford’s (Sr., SS) 3-for-5 effort with a three-run homer, two doubles, two runs scored and four runs driven in was complimented by Kaleb Duckworth’s (Fr., LF) 3-for-3 with a three-run shot, two runs scored and four RBI.

Struggles Continue

Some SEC weekend losers continued their struggles in the midweek led by the No. 11 South Carolina Gamecocks who blew an 8-6 lead and then allowed Connor Owings to follow his first-innings solo homer (3) with a walk-off single as the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers pulled out the 9-8 win in 11 innings on Tuesday. The loss wasted a good day at the plate by junior second baseman Max Schrock who went 3-for-5 with two runs scored and an RBI.

Meanwhile the Arkansas Razorbacks have now lost three straight home games after erasing a 4-0 deficit only to lose on an eighth-inning steal of home by Memphis Tigers’ freshman second baseman Brandon Montgomery, his sixth steal on the season, by a 5-4 final.

The Auburn Tigers were held to a single run as they visited the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and lost 4-1 on Tuesday night. Jackets’ hurler Devin Stanton (Sr., LHP) allowed an earned run over five while reliever Ben Parr (So., LHP) tossed three scoreless to improve to 3-1 while outdueling Tigers starter Rocky McCord (Sr., RHP) who allowed a pair of earned runs over seven and fell to 1-2 win the loss.

A pair of SEC powers were shutout on Wednesday night against in-state, non-power conference competition. The Mississippi State Bulldogs fell 3-0 to the Southern Miss Golden Eagles as five pitchers combined and scattered six hits and three walks in the shutout effort. Junior right-hander Austin Bembnowski tossed five scoreless and Ben Taylor (Sr., RHP) threw four more as the South Alabama Jaguars shutout the Alabama Crimson Tide 3-0.