To be fair, the last time we saw SEC baseball it was an all-SEC College World Series finale in Omaha. That said, in the opening week of the 2022 season, both of those teams lost their opening weekend series matchups. Vandy and Mississippi State weren’t the only SEC big dogs to struggle, though. Florida dropped its opening series to Liberty. Arkansas didn’t lose its series, but it got a battle from Illinois State. South Carolina needed a 6-run 9th inning rally to avoid losing their first series to UNC-Greensboro.

To be sure, there was good news. Ole Miss was sharp. Auburn had a surprisingly good opening series. LSU, Georgia and Tennessee all handled weaker foes. Even teams like Alabama, Kentucky and Mizzou took easy series victories. But the story of Week 1 was a bit of riding the struggle bus for the top of the SEC. Here are 9 takeaways from the opening week that was:

1. Mississippi State has work to do

A 7-run 5th inning on Sunday was one bright spot, but in dropping their opening series to Long Beach State, the Bulldogs demonstrated that there’s some work to do for the defending champs. Landon Sims as a starter showed immediate dividends in the opener, with the former relief ace tallying 13 strikeouts in 7 innings of 1-run baseball. But the Bulldogs total offensive output was a solitary single and Sims took a hard-luck loss 3-0. Saturday’s 13-3 beating was even harder to watch. A 12-4 win on Sunday salvaged a game, but for the series, State managed just 3 extra-base hits — 2 doubles on Saturday and a homer on Sunday from Matt Corder. The Bulldogs have to improve at the plate or it’ll be a long season.

2. Vandy also needs to improve at the plate

The good news for the Commodores is that their pitching showed impressive signs in their series against Oklahoma State. This was especially true Friday, when 3 Vandy Boys combined for a 5-hit shutout with 18 strikeouts. Unfortunately, the bats didn’t do a ton to help, either in a 4-3 loss on Saturday or a 7-5 loss on Sunday. Vandy doesn’t seem to have a lineup full of power hitters, but, particularly with Enrique Bradfield at the top of the lineup, they should be able to manufacture runs. But when they fail to do so, the Commodores can be kind of pedestrian.

3. What’s up with the Gators?

Hey, at least State and Vandy lost to highly regarded foes. Florida, on the other hand, lost to A-Sun foe Liberty. Yes, the Flames were in the NCAA Tournament last year but they didn’t figure to best UF, which was ranked No. 6 last week. But after a 7-2 UF win on Friday, the Flames claimed the Saturday and Sunday matchups 6-4 and 5-3. UF had just 11 combined hits in the pair of losses. Standout slugger Jud Fabian was 1-for-9 with 3 strikeouts in the series. Florida’s pitching showed improvement, but as with the other two teams listed above, some new contributors have to make noise at the plate.

4. Ole Miss answers the bell

Good news: The entire SEC wasn’t asleep. Preseason No. 9 Ole Miss not only took care of a sweep with Charleston Southern, they had the last 2 games shortened by the mercy rule. Ace pitcher Derek Diamond looked sharp on Friday and the bats carried the Rebels throughout the weekend. Tim Elko hit a pair of bombs, but most of the lineup was ripping line drives up the alley and scampering around the bases. Granted, Charleston Southern wasn’t exactly the 1927 Yankees, but there was plenty to like from Ole Miss this weekend.

5. Drew Gilbert (and UT) pick up where they left off

Can we have a column without a Drew Gilbert highlight? Let’s not.

That’s a nice Saturday grand slam for the UT slugger, whose squad seemed content to look not much different than last year’s UT gang. Not only did UT sweep Georgia Southern and score 33 runs, but the young Vols held the opposition to 3 runs on 13 hits — for the 3-game series. If UT can cobble together pitching performances like this, they might be back in the thick of the SEC East race yet again.

6. LSU intends to hit … a lot

Meanwhile, LSU outscored Maine 51-15 in their opening series. Yes, 51 runs, which is a program record for a series. Jay Johnson’s squad is going to be significant at the plate.

https://twitter.com/LSUbaseball/status/1495482761712308226

Not only guys like Arizona transfer Jacob Berry starred (a pair of homers on Saturday), but guys like JUCO transfer Jack Merrifield were crushing the ball as well. It’s hard to base too many conclusions off such a one-sided series, but suffice it to say that the early reviews for the Tigers are positive.

7. Good news, bad news for Arkansas

The Razorbacks, the most dominant team in college baseball for most of 2021, weren’t so dominant this weekend. The good news is they won their series and held Illinois State to just 6 runs in 3 games. The bad news is that the series was competitive throughout and Arkansas won 2 of 3 games and had just 11 runs and 24 hits over the series. Robert Moore had a good weekend, and obviously, the pitching is ahead of schedule (good to see Connor Noland look good on Friday), but Arkansas is another team looking for some offense.

8. Auburn surprises

The Tigers managed to win 2 of 3 games from their Texas trip, besting Kansas State 12-1 on Sunday and knocking off ranked Texas Tech 2-1 on Saturday. Friday’s game was a 3-0 loss to Oklahoma. Expectations were light for the Tigers, but allowing just 5 runs for the weekend was a positive sign. That said, Auburn had just 3 extra-base hits– all doubles– over the weekend. The pitching is ahead of schedule, but the bats will need to catch up.

9. It doesn’t ALWAYS mean something — but congrats anyway to Georgia, A&M, Alabama, and Kentucky

Georgia, Texas A&M, Alabama and Kentucky also swept their opening series matchups. Let’s face it — to base too much on the opening 3 games of the season isn’t really wise. That said, early trends can hold, and picking up easy victories is certainly not a bad thing. But is it wise to back off on State or Vandy and dive in on UK or Bama? No, not really. It’s early — really, really early. So be happy, celebrate your team if they did well … but know that if they didn’t, it doesn’t really mean much. Unless it does.