At one point Friday, we were a few runs away from having all of the top four seeds eliminated from the SEC tournament. And we could still see that as soon as tomorrow, unless Florida can win twice against ... Alabama, who started the tournament in the other bracket. For some reason they switch now, which gives us this overall bracket for the tournament.
| SEC TOURNAMENT, DAY FOUR | ||
| [8] LSU (0 losses) | [7] Alabama (0 losses) | |
| [6] Ole Miss (1 loss) | [1] Florida (1 loss) | |
Again, this is double-elimination, so Ole Miss would also need two consecutive victories to move to Sunday's championship game. If LSU or Alabama loses the first game, it will prompt a winner-take-all seven-inning game.
[6] Ole Miss 10, [2] Auburn 7 (10)
I'm disappointed this game wasn't available in Florida, because it certainly looks like it was entertaining. Ole Miss scored twice in the second, Auburn responded with one run later in the inning, the Rebels scored again in the third and the Tigers plated two in their half of that inning to leave things at a 3-3 tie after three. Ole Miss then took a 4-3 lead in the fourth before Auburn tied things in the fifth. The Rebels scored three runs in the top of the seventh; Auburn responded with three of its own in the bottom of the seventh. But Taylor Hashman's three-run home run in the 10th proved to be the game-winning shot the Rebels were looking for. The Tigers' pitchers were hardly blameless, but five errors by Auburn led to four unearned runs -- which, in case your math skills are off right now, changed the outcome of the game. The loss left Florida as the only one of the Top 4 left in the tournament.
[1] Florida 5, [5] Vanderbilt 2
If it weren't for the aluminium bats, this game could have been declared over by the middle of the fifth, when Florida had scored five unanswered runs in three innings. As it turned out, it was over anyway. You could point out that Vanderbilt left eight men on base -- but so did Florida. Solid pitching from Hudson Randall, who allowed one run in 5.1 innings, and Steven Rodriguez, who pitched two scoreless for the save, made sure that the five runs were enough. (Greg Larson also pitched 1.2 innings, allowing one run.) Here's an odd stat you don't see every day: Florida walked three and struck out two while Vanderbilt walked five and struck out 11. A subtle reminder that there's only one statistic that matters: The one on the scoreboard, which is the one that kept Florida alive for at least another day.