Ahem. Well, baseball games are not decided by knowledge of geography. But they are decided at least in part by pitching, and LSU has now allowed at least six runs in seven of its 15 games. Some of these have been of the 25-8 variety, sure, but the point is still that the Tigers have got fo make sure their pitching staff is ready for SEC games, which begin ... this weekend. Case in point: The leadoff batter reached base in five of Kansas' nine innings Friday, with three of the first men up walking. It could have been worse for LSU, as the Jayhawks left 12 men on base. Joey Bourgeois allowed six runs in 1.2 innings. In all, Kansas had 32 hits over the weekend and left plenty of questions about whether LSU deserves to be in the national championship conversation right now.

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More photos » Eric Risberg - AP

Baseballs sit piled in a bucket as the Los Angeles Angels take part in warm-up exercises during spring training baseball in Tempe, Ariz., Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

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The most important games of the weekend. All rankings are Baseball America.

No. 18 OLE MISS (11-2) vs. No. 10 LOUISVILLE (12-0)
This is the only matchup this weekend between Top 25 teams involving an SEC team and one of just two series between ranked opponents in the nation. So far, Ole Miss has shown few signs of what was expected to be a rebuilding year for the Rebels, while Louisville has gone undefeated against a relatively mediocre slate. That said, the Cardinals have defeated that schedule by a 105-42 margin. Five of the six expected starters in this series have an ERA of 2.50 or below, the exception being Louisville's Tony Zych (10.12). The challenge for Ole Miss' pitching staff will be to avoid a big inning in the middle of the game; the Cardinals have scored 52 of their 105 runs in the fourth, fifth or sixth inning. Friday: 7:30 p.m. ET · Saturday: 2:30 p.m. ET · Sunday: 1:30 p.m. ET

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The real story in this series is Florida's pitching. As we noted on Friday, Miami had not scored fewer than seven runs in a game before the weekend. Florida pitchers allowed fewer than seven runs twice. Scoring 17 runs against a good team over the weekend is also a strong case. Right now, Florida is clearly the best team in the SEC East. As we'll see, that has almost as much to do with the competition as it does with how good the Gainesville program appears to be.

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Eric Risberg - AP

Baseballs sit piled in a bucket as the Los Angeles Angels take part in warm-up exercises during spring training baseball in Tempe, Ariz., Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

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The most important games of the weekend. All rankings are Baseball America.

No. 5 FLORIDA (5-1) at No. 16 MIAMI (FL) (6-1)
Miami starts this series with a terrible idea: A "Salute to the 80s," which no one should ever do for any reason. But they also have a player off to an unbelievably good start: Chris Pelaez, batting .650 and slugging 1.050. The Hurricanes also have two players in David Villasuso and Harold Martinez, with three home runs each on the young season. Miami can also pitch, with a good (for college) 4.14 team ERA. The Hurricanes have yet to score fewer than seven runs in a game. Miami has a 123-95-1 edge on Florida in the series. Friday: 7 p.m. ET · Saturday: 7 p.m. ET · Sunday: 3 p.m. ET

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Much to the chagrin of some SEC teams, real baseball is now being played. We can say "much to the chagrin of some SEC teams," because two of them in particular took on difficult non-conference opponents. In neither case did this turn out well for the SEC team involved.

The Gamecocks weren't facing elimination from the NCAA tournament, as they were the last time they went to Greenville, and Jackie Bradley Jr. returned to the field. But aside from that and largely holding their own against a ranked opponent on the road, there's little good for South Carolina to take away from this trip. The pitching and the offense are both uneven right now.

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Still has that new season smell. There were no major suprises in the SEC -- sure, a game here or there where an underdog might have won, but not really a series -- so we don't have that much to update from where things stood before the weekend. (Nationally is another question -- we'll get to that in a moment.) No one is going to look at South Carolina sweeping Duquesne -- a program that won't exist next year -- and say it's headed for the SEC championship. And no one is going to look at LSU having a perfect weekend against Centenary and draw any conclusions about whether it's more or less likely to win the College World Series this year. It will take at least a second weekend to start to draw any conclusions about trends, disappointments/suprises, etc.

Scoreboard. As the season gets a little further along, we'll recap the score of each game of each series and what it means. But for the first weekend, let's be content with an overall scoreboard. Because of length, you can find it after the jump.

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More photos » Eric Risberg - AP

While the pros are training, college teams will be playing for keeps.

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LSU REPEAT? THREE-PEAT?
One of the most tradition-rich programs in college baseball goes for back-to-back national championships after winning 56 game and the College World Series last year. The Tigers will also be playing for the first repeat regular-season league championships since 1996-97, when back-to-back titles were won by ... LSU. Assuming they make the SEC tournament -- which is almost a given -- they'll be in the running for a three-peat after winning the playoff each of the last two years. No team has won three straight tournaments since the event began in 1977.

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A trio of seven-inning games brings us down to this: LSU vs. Vanderbilt, No. 1 vs. No 8.

Vanderbilt rolled past Arkansas, 11-1, finishing off a perfect run through its first three games in the tournament. This for a team that came in as the No. 8 seed, on the bubble for the NCAA tournament and expected to find the door quickly. For the second time in as many years, the eight seed makes the championship game.

For LSU, this is where they expected to be coming into the tournament, a chance to claim the tournament title and make people forget that they split the regular season crown with Ole Miss. If you win in the season and you win in the tournament, you get to write whatever history you want. The Bengals blasted Georgia 16-0 in the first game and then relied on pitching to edge the Dawgs 3-2 in the nightcap.

A final note: This game is a rematch. Remember that this most unpredictable and exciting tournament began with the top four seeds all losing, including Vanderbilts's 4-1 win against LSU. The Bengals hope history is kinder to them this time.

No. 1 LSU vs. No. 8 Vanderbilt, 1 p.m. ET, secsports.com (Live), FSN (tape delay, 4 p.m. ET), XM 199
Severe weather moves the game up, though it makes no difference to those watching on television. In tournaments like this, you go who's played the fewest games and what would fit the theme. The unpredictable happens again. C&F's pick: Vanderbilt