Florida clinches the East, LSU closes in on the West and Other Thursday Baseball Action

by cocknfire on May 15, 2009 2:04 AM EDT in SEC Baseball

When Florida was just 10-8 in the SEC and Georgia was 13-5 -- after the games of April 19 -- it seemed like Georgia was getting ready to cruise to the SEC East title. After all, Georgia had rebounded from its loss to Alabama, reeling off wins in all but one of its next five series and sweeping three of them. Meanwhile, Florida had lost two of its last three SEC sets.

Yes, the race was all over but the shouting.

Only it wasn't. Florida rebounded, Georgia swooned, and on Thursday night the Gators clinched the SEC East with a win. The Dawgs lost to an eventually irrelevant game South Carolina, though that loss still set Georgia back in the seeding battle.

LSU narrowly got by Mississippi State, but they all count the same in the standings. With an Alabama loss to Auburn in 10 innings, LSU needs just one more win to put away the Tide and Ole Miss, who defeated Arkansas, 7-5, to stay alive. Another win would also wrap up the conference crown for the Tigers.

Tennessee, meanwhile, managed to gin up the juices of rivalry and defeat Vanderbilt, 8-6, keeping Kentucky alive in the race for Hoover. The next time the Dores win or the 'Cats lose, though, it's curtains for Big Blue's shot at the SEC tournament.

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Am I correct in asserting that if SC takes either of the remaining games with UGA, the Cocks will finish second due to the head-to-head tiebreak?

Amazing to win the East given the way most of this season went… I personally won’t be too heart-broken if LSU takes the conference, though it would be really nice if UF could manage to sneak its way into a national seed. The last time they did that I went to Omaha and saw them play a couple of games – pretty fun to do once if you have the chance. (Though, if Wikipedia is to be believed, a national seed hasn’t won the whole thing since Rice in ’03, so perhaps hosting a regional would be satisfactory after all.)

by peachy rex on May 15, 2009 3:22 AM EDT reply actions

Yes, another win and South Carolina is second in the East

The best Georgia could do at that point would be to tie, and they’d lose the first tiebreaker (head-to-head). But it could get miserable for the Dawgs in that case, because after the champions, teams are seeded with no regard to division (another difference between baseball and basketball). Depending on how the West shakes out, it could be a drop of more than one spot — or not, if South Carolina finishes behind just as many West teams.

This is why I didn’t bother to go into detail on seedings. There are too many factors at play right now to figure it out with any certainty.

Team Speed Kills. All SEC, all the time.

by cocknfire on May 15, 2009 3:29 AM EDT up reply actions

Hmm – depending on the second tie-break, USC might be in slightly better position for seeding, as they didn’t play Bama head-to-head. Going to be an interesting couple of days, eh?

by peachy rex on May 15, 2009 7:03 AM EDT up reply actions