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A rough weekend for the SEC in the first round of the NCAA baseball tournament continued Monday, with Alabama becoming the fifth team eliminated from the 64-team field. Half of the SEC's record-setting 10 schools in the national playoff are gone, including highly-regarded teams like Florida and South Carolina, while only Vanderbilt has secured a spot in the super regional round next week.
The Tide actually didn't do poorly in the Tallahassee Regional, eliminating host Florida State in the losers' bracket and forcing an if-necessary game Monday but ultimately going 1-2 against Kennesaw State, the No. 3 seed. Alabama ends up 37-24 after charging out to an early lead in the SEC West and then fading down the stretch. In other words, after a typical Alabama season.
They lasted longer than some of the higher seeds in the tournament. Florida, the second-ranked seed overall, was swept out of its own regional after losing to the College of Charleston, the No. 4 seed in the Gainesville Regional, and North Carolina, the No. 3. South Carolina dropped two games to Maryland, with the Terps narrowly defeating the Gamecocks on Saturday and then drumming them out of the tournament in a 10-1 rout Sunday evening.
Kentucky fought through the losers' bracket of the Louisville Regional to get to the final, but it only took the hosting Cardinals one game to knock the Wildcats out. Arkansas lost two games to host Virginia in the Charlottesville Regional by a combined 12-2 margin -- 3-0 in the first game and then 9-2 in the final.
Vanderbilt outscored its opponents 21-4 during the Nashville Regional, with only the 3-2 victory against Oregon on Sunday being close. They await the winner of a 5:30 p.m. ET game between Indiana and Stanford; if the Hoosiers win, then Indiana hosts the Super Regional, while Vanderbilt would host if Stanford defeats the home team.
As of this writing, Ole Miss is facing Washington in the first of what could be two games of that regional final. If the Rebels win this afternoon, they go to the super regional round; a loss would prompt a winner-take-all game this evening at 8 p.m. ET.
Texas A&M faces Texas tonight at 7 p.m. in the final game of the Houston Regional, slated for ESPNU. Mississippi State squares off with Louisiana-Lafayette in the Lafayette Regional at 7 p.m., with the winner advancing. And LSU faces Houston at 8 p.m. ET in the last game of the Baton Rouge Regional. Except for the showdown between the Aggies and the Longhorns, all games are available on ESPN3.