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We'll start doing individual game stories tomorrow, but real life (called "work") intervened today. So here's a look at how things went so far for the SEC. Spoiler: Not well.
The SEC is now 1-4 as the round of first games in the NCAA baseball tournament regionals comes to a close. South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Arkansas and Mississippi State are all about to get underway or will start in the next hour or so. Here's where things stand after a disastrous afternoon.
TALLAHASSEE REGIONAL: Troy 5, Alabama 2
All it took was a meltdown in the epic top of the fourth inning to put the Tide one game away from elimination. The entire Trojan lineup got to bat, beginning with the Logan Pierce double that set the tone for the entire inning. A walk and a home run by Trae Santos made it 3-0 Troy. There were three more hits and an error in the inning before the Tide mercifully brought things to a close down 5-1; they never really recovered.
RALEIGH REGIONAL: William & Mary 4, Ole Miss 2
It was an entirely different kind of big inning that derailed Ole Miss. To be specific, the kind of big inning where William & Mary got four runs on zero hits. Instead, all it took was four walks and two errors in the fifth Ato put up all four runs in this one. And arguably, if you give up four runs to an opponent without allowing a hit, you deserve to be sent to the losers' bracket.
BLOOMINGTON REGIONAL: Austin Peay 4, Florida 3
The Gators were actually the lower seed in this game, for whatever that's worth. Florida lead until the eighth inning when -- guess what? -- the Governors scored three runs to take the lead for good. Or, really, Michael Davis took the lead with a three-run shot that put Austin Peay in the winners' bracket. It's looking very likely that Florida will meet Savannah State tomorrow in an elimination game.
CORVALLIS REGIONAL: UC Santa Barbara 6, Texas A&M 4
A&M tried a novel approach by requiring UCSB to score runs in more than one or two innings. This did not work out any better for the Aggies than the other three SEC teams we've recapped so far, though TAMU put a real scare into the Gauchos in the ninth by scoring two runs and putting runners on second and third with one out. But a foul pop fly and a strike out ended the game.
BATON ROUGE REGIONAL: LSU 11, Jackson State 7
The Tigers let the Tigers sco-- let's start over. LSU let Jackson State score two runs in the the first inning, then scored the next 10. And then proceeded to allow Jackson State to score five more runs to LSU's one and make things a ball game. But the Bayou Bengals (there) managed to close the door and give the SEC it's first victory of the NCAA touranment.