The Rundown for SEC Baseball: March 12

After a busy weekend, a glut of the teams of the SEC are going back on the diamond.

There are two Top 15 matchups on the radar Tuesday. That includes a Top 10 showdown in the Sunshine State. 7th-ranked Florida will play host to 6th-ranked Florida State. FSU is 13-1 through their first 14 games of the season, having taken their first loss of the year this past Saturday to Virginia Tech. Other than that, the Noles have been breezing through the competition.

The other Top 15 matchup will pit Ole Miss against Louisville. The 8th-ranked Rebels will travel down to Louisville to face off with the 14th-ranked Cardinals in what should be a fun nonconference matchup. The Cards had won six in a row until they suffered a loss to Boston College on Sunday afternoon. So, they’ve been pretty hot lately, so we’ll see what the Rebels can do to counter them.

Quality matchups after that are pretty scarce. The other seven ranked SEC teams in action on Tuesday will be playing unranked oppositions. None of which come from major conferences. Even the unranked SEC squads won’t be facing any powers, either.

2nd-ranked Vanderbilt will trudge onward and look to rebound from a loss to Illinois State on Sunday, as they face off with Samford. That one loss to ISU didn’t do any damage to their ranking, but it did snap a seven-game win streak that the Commodores were busy rolling with. And it was a dominant one as well, as they had outscored their opponents 73-15 during that torrid run.

Arkansas, the 10th ranked team in the nation, takes the field to start a two-game series against Western Illinois. Entering play, the Razorbacks have won seven of their last eight, the one loss coming this weekend to Louisiana Tech. The Hogs still took the series from LaTech, winning two of three on Friday and Sunday. That included an 11-0 shutout in the series finale. We’ll see if the Hogs can keep those good vibes going.

After taking two of three from Cal, the 13th-ranked LSU Tigers are back in action as they hit the road to face Northwestern State. The Tigers’ brief bump in the road seems to be behind them, as they bounced back nicely from being swept by Texas. LSU won three of the four games they played this past week, and will now look to flip that into success this week.

17th-ranked Auburn has won nine in a row. The Tigers will now aim to make that an even 10 on Tuesday when they face South Alabama. Auburn will be hitting the road to face the Jags, which will be their fourth true road game of the year so far. Keep your eye on the Edouard Julien, who’s been one of the SEC’s most productive players this season.

All good things come to an end sometimes, and Tennessee learned that on Sunday. The Vols suffered their first loss of the season, snapping a 15-game win streak that they rolled out of the gate with. Now, they’ll hope to not stat a losing streak, as they play the first of two games this week against UNC Asheville on Tuesday. Tennessee is ranked 21st in the country, as even their lengthy win streak didn’t let them climb too highly up the charts. But they will hope not to descend too far now that they have a tally etched in the loss column.

Reigning SEC Freshman of the Week Ty Coleman and Texas A&M will face Dallas Baptist on Tuesday night. The 22nd-ranked Aggies were carried by Coleman’s efforts last week, ashe collected six hits in 13 at-bats, which included a home run — a grand slam — against Gonzaga. The Aggies would obviously like more in that department going forward, and perhaps Coleman’s bat will stay hot going forward.

23rd-ranked South Carolina will be in action in a road matchup with The Citadel. Led by the bat of Jacob Olson, the Gamecocks are 13-3 on the year and have won their last three, having swept Valparaiso over the weekend. This will serve as a bit of a tune up for them before a big matchup looms against Georgia this weekend to open up conference play.

Lastly, Mizzou, Kentucky and Alabama are all in action at home on Tuesday. The Tigers host Arkansas State, UK hosts SIU-Edwardsville while Alabama plays host to Middle Tennessee.