Here is your SEC Recap for April 3rd.
Georgia 12 #4 LSU 6
BATON ROUGE, LA. — Sophomore Levi Hyams and freshman Kyle Farmer combined to drive in seven runs, and a trio of senior pitchers led Georgia to a 12-6 win over fourth-ranked LSU Saturday in front of 7,468 at Alex Box Stadium.
Georgia (10-16, 2-6 SEC) was on the verge of a fast start against LSU right-hander Austin Ross in the first. With one out, third baseman Beau Didier’s miscue of a grounder by Peter Verdin allowed him to advance to second. Hyams (3-for-4, 4 RBI) drilled a single up the middle to give Georgia a 1-0 edge. Sophomore Zach Cone followed with a single to extend his hitting streak to 16 games. With runners at the corners, Ross recovered to retire Robert Shipman (2-for-4, 2 RBI) and Zach Taylor to keep it 1-0. LSU (22-4, 6-2 SEC) answered in the bottom of the inning. Mikie Mahtook led off with a double off Bulldog senior Jeff Walters and eventually scored on a groundout by first baseman Blake Dean to the contest at 1-all.
#9 Florida 7 #18 Vanderbilt 3
Double-threat freshman Brian Johnson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) helped No. 8 Florida (20-6/6-2 SEC) clinch its weekend series against No. 17 Vanderbilt (23-6/4-4 SEC) with a 7-3 victory on Saturday afternoon at McKethan Stadium in front of 3,684 fans. The left-hander (3-1) held the Commodores scoreless for the first 5.2 innings and permitted just one run to pick up his second conference win and was 3-for-3 with a run.
“Brian Johnson’s performance today was really good, although he didn’t have his best breaking ball in the first two innings,” head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “He started throwing strikes after the second inning and the most important thing is that he gave us a chance early on. We kept the momentum and he put zeros up after that. I’m not saying he had his best stuff today, but he battled.”
Florida Recap
Vanderbilt Recap
#10 Arkansas 10 #30 Kentucky 1
FAYETTEVILLE – After a slugfest in game one in which the Razorbacks allowed a season-high run total, Drew Smyly stood atop the mound and quieted the Kentucky bats as the No. 10 University of Arkansas baseball team came away with a 10-1 win Saturday afternoon at Baum Stadium in front of an announced crowd of 9,455, the largest home crowd of the season and 10th largest in facility history. In response to the pitching performance, the Hog offense ripped 17 hits, their most during Southeastern Conference play. The 10 runs for Arkansas (21-6, 5-3) are tied for its conference-season high.
"Smyly is hard to hit," head coach Dave Van Horn said. "He worked out of a couple of jams. He created a couple of those jams for himself. He just did a tremendous job of pitching out of the stretch. He gave us exactly what we needed and that was for someone to eat up some innings."
Tennessee 5 #14 Ole Miss 2
OXFORD, Miss. – Led by a four-hit, two home run performance by P.J. Polk and seven gutsy innings from Stephen McCray, the University of Tennessee baseball team finally broke through in Southeastern Conference play, taking out No. 11 Ole Miss, 5-2, to even its series with the Rebels Saturday afternoon in front of 7,429 raucous fans at Oxford-University Stadium/Swayze Field in Oxford, Miss.
"It’s good to get this win under our belt," UT Head Coach Todd Raleigh said. "To be honest with you, every SEC game we have played has been a lot like this one. The difference today was that our bullpen put up zeroes and we were able to tack on one in the eighth and one in the ninth.
Tennessee Recap
Ole Miss Recap
Mississippi State 8 #19 South Carolina 7
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Mississippi State freshman right-hander Ben Bracewell retired the side in order in the ninth inning as the Bulldogs held off a late South Carolina rally, 8-7 in a Southeastern Conference baseball game played Saturday afternoon at Carolina Stadium.
The Bulldogs evened the weekend conference series at a game apiece. For M-State, it was their first win in the Carolina since taking the middle game of a series in 2006.
The Bulldogs can make it back-to-back series wins from Carolina with a win in Sunday’s series finale.
Mississippi State Recap
South Carolina Recap
#29 Alabama 6 Auburn 5
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – No. 23 Alabama scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning en route to a 6-5 come-from-behind win over arch-rival Auburn in front of 5,036 fans at Sewell-Thomas Stadium. The win clinches the SEC series for the Crimson Tide, which has won four of the previous six series against the Tigers.
Alabama (19-7, 4-4 SEC) recorded its sixth come-from-behind win of the season, including both wins over Auburn.
"The bullpen did a tremendous job," Alabama head coach Mitch Gaspard said. "I just thought we competed really hard, to get down 4-nothing against a really good arm in Cole Nelson and then Hubbard who is outstanding, so I thought the guys just competed and did a great job tonight."
