Ole Miss out of SEC tourney, will host regional
Ole Miss faced Vanderbilt in the semifinals of the SEC tournament on Saturday. Vanderbilt is ranked #1 in the country, but because they had lost a game in the tournament and we hadn’t, they had to beat us twice to advance to the tournament finals. We only had to win once to advance. They scored 8 runs in the first one and a third innings of the first game. They eventually won 13-1.
We led 3-2 for most of the second game. In the bottom of the ninth Vanderbilt scored a run to make it 3-3 and force extra innings. (The tying run actually scored on a foul sacrifice fly to left field. That brings up the question of whether the left fielder should have let the foul ball drop instead of catching it for the out. I say yes, but it’s a pretty unique situation.)
In the top of the 10th, Ole Miss scored two runs when the catcher threw the ball into left field during a pickoff attempt at third base. The pickoff attempt occurred after a failed suicide squeeze. Crazy stuff. We then scored another run to make it 6-3. That’s a pretty secure lead in most extra inning situations, but we somehow allowed Vandy to score four runs in the bottom of the inning to win the game.
Sunday afternoon Vanderbilt played Arkansas for the SEC tournament championship. Vandy won 7-4. They are the first regular season champion to win the tournament in 10 years.
The NCAA also announced regional sites for the NCAA tournament Sunday afternoon. Vanderbilt, Arkansas, South Carolina, and Ole Miss will be hosting 4 of the 16 regionals. Vanderbilt is hosting its first ever regional. (Wow. That just shows you how far they’ve come.) Ole Miss is hosting one for the fourth year in a row. Texas is the only other school in the country that can make that claim.
Ole Miss will be hosting Southern Mississippi, Troy, and Sam Houston State this weekend in their regional. In my opinion, Southern Miss is the only team that has a chance to beat us, though Troy might surprise us. We’ve split two games against Southern Miss this year. However, neither team was using their best pitchers, so it’s hard to tell much from that. Our first game will be against Sam Houston State on Friday night.