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At the risk of jinxing it…
TX A&M leads UT 3-0 in the bottom of the 6th.

It's been raining all day; pretty miserable day to be playing 4 baseball games in Birmingham.

Glad Vanderbilt finished in the top 4.

Now there's a rain delay 8/9 into the UT-Miss State game.

Like I said, not the best of scenarios for the bottom 2/3 of the conference.

With the entry of Texas and Oklahoma into the SEC, the league will have to decide whether to raise the number of SECT-eligible teams to 14, or keep it at 12 (with 4 SEC teams not making Hoover). Given that both UTw and OU are historically proficient at baseball, I doubt they will do anything but raise the number of eligible teams to 14.

Which to me means the league has to look at playing games in both Hoover and at the Birmingham Barons' stadium near downtown. It ALWAYS rains in Hoover. Two venues for the early games would go a long way to ensuring games can be played without ending at 2 AM.

UT sent packing on day 1. Likely traveling to a regional so they can’t bat around in their little league park.
All is right with the world.

The Vols lost in round one, which is the single elimination round, so they have a whole lotta time to get ready for a 4-team tournament that they will probably host, right?

And if they had won that game, they would have had to play at least 3 games, and been in the same situation -- between 9 and 16 -- right?

Maybe, when the league goes to 16 games, everyone gets to go and they just do a 16-8-4-2 single elimination tourney, with the first day split at two different venues. That way you don't have this situation where you would are better off losing in round one because it allows you to rest your pitching squad.

UltimateVUFan wrote: ↑Tue May 23, 2023 5:32 pm UT sent packing on day 1. Likely traveling to a regional so they can’t bat around in their little league park.
All is right with the world.

I hope you are right, but UUT was #9 in the College Baseball Composite Rankings before to day's game.
https://masseyratings.com/cbase/compare.htm

If the tournament expanded to 14 teams, seeds 3-14 could play on Tuesday with six teams going home. The rest of the week would be the same as the current format.

That’s a lot of teams traveling to Hoover-Birmingham for just one game and a lot of fans leaving early.


The ACC model could allow ALL 16 teams to play. The tournament would have four pods of 4 teams playing a round robin Tuesday-Friday (with a day off somewhere) then the winners (with various tiebreakers considered) go to Semis Saturday and Championship Sunday.

Could be larger crowds with more teams staying longer in Hoover and the pitching staffs would not be stretched as greatly.

Each team is guaranteed 3 games, but may play 4 or 5, all against different opponents. Another plus.


PS: As for Tennessee, i suggest that a one-and-out team doesn’t deserve to host. The SEC may have six or seven host teams; surely those could be teams that last until Wednesday. One exception might be Kentucky (if it loses today) with its oddly high RPI.

nyyankeeDore wrote: ↑Tue May 23, 2023 5:42 pm

UltimateVUFan wrote: ↑Tue May 23, 2023 5:32 pm UT sent packing on day 1. Likely traveling to a regional so they can’t bat around in their little league park.
All is right with the world.

I hope you are right, but UUT was #9 in the College Baseball Composite Rankings before to day's game.
https://masseyratings.com/cbase/compare.htm

All I know is D1Baseball released their projected field of 64 yesterday and they had UT traveling to the Coral Gables regional as a 2 seed. That was before today’s loss. Here’s hoping…

https://d1baseball.com/projections/d1ba ... ns-may-22/

Edit: They’re also #16 in NCAA RPI, which was last updated yesterday (May 22). No more opportunities to improve that before selection day.

historybill wrote: ↑Tue May 23, 2023 3:26 pm Now there's a rain delay 8/9 into the UT-Miss State game.

Like I said, not the best of scenarios for the bottom 2/3 of the conference.

Ut/A&M. Miss State didn't make the tourney.

UltimateVUFan wrote: ↑Tue May 23, 2023 5:50 pm

nyyankeeDore wrote: ↑Tue May 23, 2023 5:42 pm

UltimateVUFan wrote: ↑Tue May 23, 2023 5:32 pm UT sent packing on day 1. Likely traveling to a regional so they can’t bat around in their little league park.
All is right with the world.

I hope you are right, but UUT was #9 in the College Baseball Composite Rankings before to day's game.
https://masseyratings.com/cbase/compare.htm

All I know is D1Baseball released their projected field of 64 yesterday and they had UT traveling to the Coral Gables regional as a 2 seed. That was before today’s loss. Here’s hoping…

https://d1baseball.com/projections/d1ba ... ns-may-22/

Edit: They’re also #16 in NCAA RPI, which was last updated yesterday (May 22). No more opportunities to improve that before selection day.

Knoxville sportswriter seems to think they'll be traveling:

"The Vols are headed home from the SEC Tournament and surely headed on the road for the NCAA Tournament after going one-and-done in Hoover. No. 7 seed UT (38-19) fell 3-0 to No. 10-seeded Texas A&M (33-23) at the Hoover Met, bowing out on the opening day after winning the conference tournament title last season."

https://www.knoxnews.com/story/sports/c ... 238425007/

Is it possible Vitello threw the game to rest for the NCAA's? Wouldn't really surprise me.

Watching Vitello is annoying. What a whiner! Even worse than O’Sullivan IMO.

Auburn best pitcher is starting game 1. I guess that’s a plus for us, assuming they win.

Seadog73 wrote: ↑Tue May 23, 2023 7:24 pm Is it possible Vitello threw the game to rest for the NCAA's? Wouldn't really surprise me.

Not a lot of integrity in that dugout.

DeefromAtlanta wrote: ↑Tue May 23, 2023 10:19 pm

Seadog73 wrote: ↑Tue May 23, 2023 7:24 pm Is it possible Vitello threw the game to rest for the NCAA's? Wouldn't really surprise me.

Not a lot of integrity in that dugout.

Not a lot of integrity, but the way you throw away a game is with pitching. You don't tell you hitters not to hit, which is what happened to them today (1 hit). Hopefully that carries over for them to the NCAA Tournament.

Meanwhile, first competitive game of the tourney:

Ark 5, Texas A&M 4; 7th inning.

Well darn. Game #3 today has gone into extra innings. Looks like a late night for the Dores and for the fans. Get your no-doz and/or favorite alcoholic beverage ready and we’ll see what happens.
Correction—game 2.

Hope they wrap up before too much longer. Game 3 is already behind schedule (slated to start a half hour ago). Maybe Bama can run rule Florida to get things back on track.

Arkansas wins on a walk-off HR 6-5 to advance.