SEC Tournament: Vanderbilt 3, Texas A&M 0 -- The Commodores Eliminate the Aggies and Try for History

It didn't always look like the Vanderbilt offense was pursuing a win in the elimination game against Texas A&M with any urgency. The Commodores ended up scoring three runs on 14 hits after stranding 12 runners. Think about that; how incredibly difficult does it have to be to strand 12 runners while only scoring three runs?

But whatever the offense wanted to do, the Vanderbilt pitching staff was going to win this game. Starter Tyler Beede gave up just two hits in 7.1 innings, and Brian Miller was perfect in collecting the last five outs. Texas A&M didn't even have the opportunity to strand as many players as crossed the plate for Vanderbilt in the Commodores' 3-0 win.

And just like that, becomes the first No. 1 seed in three years to make the semifinals of the SEC tournament. The Commodores rebounded from an early loss to put themselves firmly back in control of the race for the No. 1 national seed. And with two more wins, they can achieve the relatively rare feat of combining a regular season SEC title with a tournament championship. The last time a team won both an outright regular-season championship and the tournament crown was in 2007, when Vanderbilt did it -- and that was the first time since the SEC went back to a single tournament in 1996.

The Vanderbilt win also ensures that the three top seeds (LSU and Arkansas were the other two) and the hottest team in the tournament (Mississippi State) will fight for the championship over the next two days.

As for Texas A&M, the Aggies made a great case to be included in the NCAA tournament, but there are still a number of games to be played across the country that could decide how much that matters. They came in as a bubble team likely to be left out, and leave as a bubble team whose odds are probably no worse than 50-50 -- not bad for a week.