SEC Weekly Roundup: A New No.1 in the Conference

A common theme in the SEC this year has been parody and it showed itself again this week. Texas went on the road to beat a scrappy Kentucky team and will now be the fifth different team to assume the No.1 spot in the country. Georgia and Tennessee each had top-10 series wins, Auburn swept LSU and Mississippi State took the series in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Oklahoma was impressive against Vanderbilt, and Texas A&M stays hot with their sweep against South Carolina.

SEC Top 5

Hunter DeLauder

1. Texas (29-5, 13-2 SEC)
2. Tennessee (31-4, 11-4 SEC)
3. Arkansas (32-5, 12-3 SEC)
4. Georgia (32-6, 10-5)
5. LSU (31-6, 10-5)

With horse racing’s biggest event, The Kentucky Derby, less than a month out, the race for the top spot in the league rages on. Multiple teams continuously jockey for positions that will set them up for success when we get to the SEC tournament. It is important to remember that while all 16 teams do get in, the goal will be a top-four seed to avoid playing five games in five days.

This week, Texas takes the No.1 spot. Riding high after sweeping Georgia, it may have been easy to see them having trouble going to Kentucky. But outside of the game two loss, Texas handled business like a number one team should.  Clutch hitting and dominant pitching have worked all season, and it did again this weekend. It will be another home test for Texas when the Auburn Tigers come rolling in fresh off their back-to-back series wins over Alabama and LSU.

Tennessee bounced back with an impressive road series win against Ole Miss. LHP Liam Doyle and infielder Andrew Fischer made their return to Oxford and did not disappoint. Doyle shined on Friday, going 8 1/3 innings pitched with 14 strikeouts. His performance was good enough to be named SEC Pitcher of the Week for the third time this season. Fischer went 4-for-10 with three extra-base hits and homered on Sunday.

https://twitter.com/11point7/status/1910876545280848230

It was a super regional-type atmosphere in Athens, GA, over the weekend when Arkansas and Georgia clashed. These two SEC juggernauts traded blows in every game this series. But after getting spanked 13-3 in game one, the Bulldogs responded with back-to-back 7-6 finals to clinch the series.

The most exciting game came on Sunday where late-game heroics was the main plot line. Down two in the ninth, Arkansas blasted two home runs to tie the game up at 5-5. Wehiwa Aloy sent one over the batter’s eye to tie the game. After Arkansas scored in the top of the 11th, Bulldogs’ first baseman Tre Phelps tied the game with a two-out double. And in the 12th, Henry Hunter sent a 3-1 fastball over the centerfield wall to walk it off. Both teams are good, so you walk away from this series acknowledging that and moving on-Omaha-caliber teams.

https://twitter.com/SECNetwork/status/1911525235263684912

LSU was swept over the weekend at Auburn. The pitching was good enough to win, but the bats were quiet. Auburn had great outings from their pitching staff and did a solid job at limiting an offense that put up numbers at Oklahoma the weekend before.

Jacob Fedora

1. Arkansas
2. Texas
3. Georgia
4. Tennessee
5. LSU

The biggest thing that sets Arkansas apart from Texas in the rankings is that Texas is behind Arkansas in most batting statistics. On the pitching side of the ball, Arkansas is three teams behind Texas in pitching statistics, such as runs allowed at 3.03 for Texas, which is first versus 3.66 for Arkansas, which is good for fourth in the SEC.

The batting average allowed is similar, where Texas is third with 2.12 and Arkansas is sixth with 2.26. Whereas behind the plate, Arkansas has a nine-place advantage in team batting average with .327, which is first in the SEC, versus 2.86 for Texas, which is 10th in the SEC.

Another example can be on-base percentage, as Arkansas is second in the SEC with a .439, as opposed to Texas, which has a .392 OBP, which ranks 13th in the SEC. These significant differences behind the plate are the difference between the first and second in the SEC for me this week.

As for the rest of my top five, Georgia jumped Tennessee from last week’s top five due to their series win over Arkansas. LSU fell to the fifth spot because they had a horrible week, where they were swept by Auburn.

Despite the sweep, Auburn stays out of the top 5 this week because LSU still has a better record, and they rank significantly higher in almost all batting and pitching statistics in the SEC.