SEC Tournament Day 3: Storms rolling in, balls flying out

Florida Athletics

By Chris Marler

The third day of the SEC Tournament is over, and the annual weather delays have finally made their way to town. Here’s a recap of Thursday’s quarterfinals and a look ahead to Friday.

ABS Update: Umpires have a their best day yet

There were two games on Thursday and only 16 challenges. They ended in an even split, as eight calls were overturned and eight were correct. It was the umpires’ best day of the tournament so far. The success rate has steadily dropped each day, going from 65 percent to 62 percent to 59.5 percent over the weekend.

Florida boys stay hot

Few teams in the SEC have been hotter down the stretch than the Florida Gators.

On Thursday, they faced Alabama again in a rematch of the series sweep they suffered back in March. The Gators did not seem to have any of the issues that plagued them over those three games two months ago.

They won 13-3. Liam Peterson went five innings and struck out eight, allowing one earned run. On the day, Gators pitching struck out 14 Alabama batters in a dominating effort.

Now comes the question of what to do with each team when it comes to seeding.

Kendall Rogers of D1Baseball.com thinks that the win over Alabama is enough to get them a top eight seed nationally. Plus, Mississippi State’s loss to Georgia in the early game may have bumped them out of hosting a regional according to some.

Selection Monday is just a little over 72 hours away, so we will find out soon enough.

Florida beginning to play really good baseball this time of year. Liam Peterson showed electric stuff today.

I think for me, @GatorsBB has moved ahead of Southern Miss in the T8 pecking order, and you’ve basically got Auburn, Alabama, Texas A&M, Florida, and perhaps even FSU… https://t.co/0knRnFvYRY

— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogers) May 21, 2026

Home runs flying at Hoover

The Hoover Met is a really big ball park and by all means should be pitcher friendly. However, the ball has been flying out of the ball park through the first three days.

Through the fifth session on Thursday, 33 home runs have been hit across 10 games. That leaves the tournament just 13 shy of the SEC Tournament record of 46, a mark it’s currently on pace to break with five games still remaining this weekend.

There have been several balls that the park has held in because of its size, but for the most part the hitters haven’t had any issues dropping bombs to all fields. Yesterday, Brendan Lawson got the scoring going early with a 444 foot mammoth shot just right of center field.