GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Surprise! The Southeastern Conference Baseball Tournament in Hoover, Alabama, has been delayed by rain.
Not exactly breaking news. This has happened in virtually every SEC Tournament since it began play at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium, which first hosted in 1990, again in 1996 and every year since 1998.
The threat of bad weather on Wednesday night as tornadoes threatened parts of Alabama and Tennessee postponed the fourth game of the tournament Tuesday night to Wednesday morning at the Hoover Met and moved games on Thursday.
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No. 1 LSU’s opening game on Friday night against an undetermined opponent has not yet been changed.
The fourth game of the tournament between No. 11 seed Mississippi State (34-20, 15-15 SEC) and No. 14 seed Texas A&M (28-25, 11-19) was moved from Tuesday night to a 9:30 a.m. start Wednesday. As of 8 a.m. Wednesday, it was sunny in Hoover with little chance of rain in the forecast.
All games will be televised by the SEC Network until the Sunday championship game at 2 p.m. on ESPN2.
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No. 9 seed Alabama opened the newly formatted, single-elimination tournament on Tuesday morning with a 4-1 win over No. 16 Missouri. No. 12 seed Oklahoma then defeated 13 seed Kentucky, 5-1, and 10 seed Florida beat 15 seed South Carolina, 11-3. Kentucky (29-25, 13-17 SEC regular season) now finds itself in some danger of not reaching the NCAA Regional field as it entered on the bubble.
Other games scheduled for Wednesday pit Alabama (41-15, 16-14) vs. No. 8 seed Tennessee (41-15, 16-14) at a time to be announced, Oklahoma (34-19, 14-16) vs. No. 5 seed Georgia (42-14, 18-12) at 4:30 p.m., and No. 7 seed Ole Miss (37-18, 16-14) vs. No. 10 seed Florida (38-19, 15-15) at a time to be announced.
Weather permitting, the Thursday schedule opens with No. 6 seed Auburn (38-17, 17-13 SEC) playing the Texas A&M-Mississippi State winner at 11 a.m. That game was originally scheduled to be the last one on Wednesday night.
No. 1 seed Texas (42-11, 22-8) plays the Alabama-Tennessee winner at 3 p.m. Thursday, followed by No. 4 seed Vanderbilt (39-16, 19-11) playing the Oklahoma-Georgia winner at a time to be determined.
No. 1-ranked LSU (42-13, 19-11 SEC) is scheduled to play Friday night (TBA) against the winner of the Auburn vs. Texas A&M/Mississippi State. No. 2 seed Arkansas (43-12, 20-10 SEC) plays at 3 p.m. Friday against the Ole Miss-Florida winner.
LSU is ranked No. 8 in the latest Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) rankings and has been projected for weeks to get a top eight national seed that guarantees home field advantage through the NCAA Regional and Super Regional games. The NCAA selection committee will announce the top eight seeds on Monday (11 a.m., ESPN2).
“I think we’re for sure a top eight national seed,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said Tuesday. “I’m not on the committee, though, so there are smart people on there that look at this thing hard and make good decisions. But I don’t have a doubt in my mind that we’re a top eight national seed and have earned that.”
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