SEC baseball standings, April 18: Kentucky, Arkansas division leaders entering 2nd half of conference play
SEC baseball is entering its last month of the 2024 regular season. May 18 will be the final day of action before teams pack up and head to Hoover for the SEC Tournament.
The conference slate is at the halfway point, with 5 weekend series down and 5 to go. Here’s a look at the standings midway through conference play:
SEC East
- Kentucky – 14-1 SEC (31-5 overall)
- Tennessee – 10-5 (31-6)
- Vanderbilt – 8-7 (27-10)
- South Carolina – 8-7 (26-11)
- Georgia – 7-8 (27-9)
- Florida – 7-8 (19-17)
- Missouri – 5-10 (17-21)
SEC West
- Arkansas – 12-3 SEC (32-5 overall)
- Texas A&M – 11-4 (33-4)
- Mississippi State – 7-8 (23-14)
- Alabama – 6-9 (24-13)
- Ole Miss – 5-10 (20-16)
- LSU – 3-12 (23-15)
- Auburn – 2-13 (19-17)
NJ, PA, VA, MD, WV, MA, KS, KY, LA, TN, CO, AZ, IA, IL, IN, MI, OH
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April 18-21 series lineup
A couple of division series get things started on Thursday before the Friday-Sunday series get going. Here’s the full lineup for the weekend.
Rankings via secsports.com
No. 1 Texas A&M at No. 18 Alabama (Thursday-Saturday)
Texas A&M enters the series on a 5-game winning streak. The Aggies opened SEC play at Florida, dropping two of the 3-game set. TAMU has not lost an SEC series since, besting Mississippi State, Auburn (sweep), South Carolina and Vanderbilt (sweep).
Alabama is coming off a huge series win over Arkansas to improve to 6-9 in conference play, but dropped its midweek contest to UAB on Tuesday. The Tide is 6-9 in conference play and 18-5 at home this season.
Florida at No. 13 Vanderbilt (Thursday-Saturday)
UF and Vandy have contended for the SEC East many times over the past few years under Kevin O’Sullivan and Tim Corbin. This season, they’re looking up at Kentucky and Tennessee.
Coming off a trip to the College World Series finals, Florida entered the 2024 campaign with a high ranking but has fallen short of preseason expectations. Inconsistent hitting and pitching led to the Gators dropping 6 contests in a row to Mizzou, FSU and South Carolina before getting a win over the Gamecocks to avoid a home sweep.
Speaking of sweeps, Vandy is looking to bounce back from dropping all 3 to Texas A&M. The Dores are above .500 in SEC play with series wins over Auburn (sweep), Mizzou (sweep) and LSU.
Ole Miss at No. 24 Georgia (Friday-Sunday)
Both teams enter under .500 in SEC play and are looking to finish strong with postseason play a month away.
Georgia started Wes Johnson’s first season with a strong showing in nonconference play. Eight of UGA’s 9 SEC losses, though, have come in conference play. Last time out, the Dawgs beat Mizzou 10-7 to take the series at home.
Ole Miss is hoping that a recent series win over Mississippi State via run-rule will give the Rebels some much-needed momentum after a rough stretch of conference play.
No. 4 Tennessee at No. 3 Kentucky (Friday-Sunday)
The headlining series of the weekend is in Lexington. Kentucky can make (another) statement with a series win over Tennessee. The Vols have a chance to make up some ground in the division with a win.
As the record indicates, Kentucky has not lost an SEC series this season. The only conference team the Bat Cats have not swept is Mizzou, falling short in a 2-1 game in Columbia. UK has won 4 straight, including a 17-13 victory over rival Louisville.
As Tony Vitello teams are known to do, Tennessee is winning with a high-powered offense. UT is on a 7-game winning streak, including a road series victory over Auburn and home sweep of LSU.
No. 2 Arkansas at No. 20 South Carolina (Friday-Sunday)
Arkansas has been one of the SEC’s top teams throughout the season, generating significant College World Series buzz. The Razorbacks are looking to bounce back from their first SEC series loss of the season after falling to Alabama.
South Carolina is back home for Big Gamecock Weekend after taking 2-of-3 on the road at Florida. The Gamecocks are above .500 at 8-7 in SEC play with series wins over Vanderbilt (sweep) and UF.
LSU at Mizzou (Friday-Sunday)
It’s a tough year to be a Tiger in the SEC, as LSU and Mizzou (and Auburn) sit low in the conference standings.
The defending national champions are having a rough repeat campaign. LSU is 3-12 in SEC play without a series win having faced Mississippi State, Florida, Arkansas, Vanderbilt and Tennessee.
Mizzou got off to a dreadful 1-8 start in SEC play before managing a home sweep of Florida. The Tigers dropped last weekend’s series at Georgia, but enter the LSU series coming off a home win over Missouri State on Tuesday.
Auburn at Mississippi State (Friday-Sunday)
Auburn enters the MSU series with the SEC’s worst record in conference play (2-13). AU was swept by Kentucky last weekend, but comes in looking to get a winning streak going after a Tuesday victory over Georgia Tech.
It has been an up-and-down conference slate for Mississippi State at 7-8 against SEC teams. The Bulldogs are looking to get back over .500 after seeing the Ole Miss series slip away in frustrating fashion.
a little context for that 2-13 aub conf record: #1 a&m, #2 ark, #3 tn, #5 uk, #12 vandy
no other team’s sched even comes close to that.
A little context for the Dawgs conf record as well…have lost series AT Ky – AT TENN – AT Ms St. Swept higher ranked Bama at thome. Oh, and they still get to go play AT aTm and AT SC with Vandy at home…how’s that for context?
i don’t think i understand why you’re posing that question to me. i’m a dawg fan too, but if you believe that the dawgs have had a harder conf sched than aub than you’re sadly mistaken. i think you missed the point of my comment.
What I believe is that by the end of the regular season the Dawgs (and numerous other SEC teams) will have a schedule that comes close or exceeds Auburns in difficulty…not to mention that Auburn has gone 2-7 AT HOME vs 3 of those top rated teams and 0-6 to the other 2 on the road. Contextually speaking, Auburn baseball sux
The records suggest you have 4 really good teams and 6-8 more that will probably make a regional.
For the naysayers that believe there is no such thing as BAMA Bias…they are ranked ahead of 4 other SEC teams that have better records. Oh, and they lost the series against a couple of those. Long live Bama bias…
“UF and Vandy have contended for the SEC East MANY TIMES over the past FEW years”
huh? Journalism at it’s finest…
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Go Cats!
LSU currently sits in the First Four Out category. Reputation probably plays a big part in that as we have been terrible in conference play. We need to sweep Missouri. That’s a pretty big ask considering we haven’t won a conference series all season. LSU needs to at least win the series to have a shot at post season play. This is our worst conference start since 1977. I was still a teen then and now I’m on Medicare.
i would say that ‘reputation’ and being the defending champ is playing about 99% of that current standing
Got the first one. That’s a nice start.
Lost the second. We’re back to sucking.
LSU won their first SEC series of the season. Gotta keep that going.
Love what Kentucky is doing, but their schedule on the back half is going to get pretty tough starting this weekend against the Vols. They have won the games they were supposed to, but the overall SOS hasn’t been daunting. Hope they can build on this momentum and prove they deserve their ranking…
Don’t worry-UTjr isn’t serious about athletics and will fold and drop the series like they always do