Georgia Athletics
By Chris Marler
It was a busy and long Easter weekend on the diamond around the SEC. Most teams in the conference finished up their series early over the weekend with just two of the eight series playing on Sunday. The end result was a lot of movement in the standings, some teams further claiming their spot in the league, and some teams continuing to free fall.
Room for one more?
Every week this league reminds you the more you think you know, the less you actually do. That was definitely the case in Starkville this weekend. I was confident Mississippi State wouldn’t just win the series against Georgia, but that they and Texas stood alone as the SEC’s two best teams this season.
That was my take despite Georgia being in a three way tie with those two teams in the conference standings. Fast forward three days later, and the biggest shock this weekend besides that tomb being empty, was that Georgia swept Mississippi State at Dudy Noble Field for the first time since 2004.
That’s a massive win for a Georgia team that still feels like it’s not getting the consistent respect they deserve, mainly because of their inability at times to be consistent. The other, don’t sell your shares for Mississippi State just yet. Or, at all.
Tennessee’s biggest flaw
Tennessee is a flawed baseball team this year. That’s no secret. There are a boatload of differences in this year’s team versus the Tennessee teams we’ve seen in previous seasons. That’s expected in year one of a new coach who was replacing the greatest coach in program history.
Tony Vitello’s absence hasn’t been the biggest change, and neither has the drop in home runs compared to past seasons. The real issue is that, in the Josh Elander era, this team hasn’t figured out how to win yet. And that’s the key word: yet. They may get there, but right now they struggle to close games and put opponents away.
They’ve lost five games in the last two weekend series against LSU and Vanderbilt. Three came on walk-offs to Vanderbilt and the two to LSU came after blowing leads of four or more.
Circling back
We said prior to the weekend the team that should be on upset alert this weekend was Kentucky, and that proved to be true. Missouri came into the weekend 1-8 in conference play, and is still very much one of the worst teams in the conference. That didn’t matter in Lexington.
The Tigers went on the road and took two of three from a top 25 team. That’s a great feeling as they head into next weekend’s battle for the basement dwellers when they host South Carolina.
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