SEC Baseball Check-In

It’s April 7th, and with a little over six weeks to go, it’s time to check in on the SEC baseball season.

Your leader in the SEC East is Vanderbilt. This comes as no surprise, as the club led by Kumar Rocket and Jack Leiter have been awesome this year. They’re the #1 team in the land on D1Baseball’s rankings, and it’s been very easy to see why. They just had a 4-0 week of action, and only seem to be getting better by the game.

Meanwhile, you’ve got co-leaders in the SEC West. The Arkansas Razorbacks and Ole Miss Rebels are tied up at the top with 7-2 records in league play. These two clubs are #2 and #3 in D1Baseball’s rankings, meaning yes, the SEC does occupy the top three spots on the rankings. Rebels star Kevin Graham has a robust .355 average this season, with a .438 on-base percentage and .527 slugging percentage to boot. Cayden Wallace of Arkansas has arguably been the team’s best hitter, and they have three pitchers with sub-4.00 ERAs.

Going down the rungs, you don’t have to look too far to find more SEC teams in D1Baseball’s rankings. In fact, the SEC occupies five of the Top 6 in the rankings. Next, we’d find Mississippi State and Tennessee. The teams went a combined 6-1 last week, State going 3-0, and took leaps after some teams in front of them fell. It’s been an incredible year so far for Tennessee’s Liam Spence. The top hitter in the conference is pulverizing the ball, hitting .404 through his first 104 at-bats. Mississippi State’s Tanner Allen is the team’s leader in hitting with his .324 average, meanwhile. State also has the terrific Christian MacLeod, while Tennessee can say they boast Blade Tidwell, Sean Hunley, and Will Heflin, three pitchers with sub-4.00 ERAs and two — Tidwell and Hunley — who have sub-3.00 ERAs.

Next up, we can talk about South Carolina and Florida. The Gamecocks have a 6-3 mark in conference play, and went 3-1 in last week’s action. Braylen Wimmer has set the pace for SC, as Wimmer’s hit .337 this season, ranking him among the best hitters in the conference. The Gamecocks also have the league’s home run leader in Wes Clarke, who has smashed 15 dingers thus far. Florida unsurprisingly boasts strong hitters as well, as Nathan Hickey and Jacob Young rank among the top hitters as well.

Kentucky is in the mix as well here, boasting the same conference record as Florida (5-4). The Wildcats are 19-7 on the year, but aren’t getting recognition by the pollsters. Nevertheless, T.J. Collett and the Wildcats are in the thick of it. Collett has had a great year, as he ranks fifth in slugging percentage and ninth in on-base percentage as of today. He’s also tied for second in homers behind the above-mentioned Wes Clarke. Cole Stupp has also been terrific on the mound, with an ERA of 1.91 this year.

Elsewhere, we have quite a few squads under .500 in league play. Georgia, Mizzou and Texas A&M are all 3-6 at this juncture. Alabama is 2-7, and Auburn and LSU are each 1-8. LSU, in particular, has hit quite a rough patch that has left many followers and supporters of the program stunned. Auburn and Mizzou, so far, are the only teams who are under .500 on the season, as well. ‘Bama, Georgia and A&M at least have the luxury of being over .500 overall.