Credit: GamecockBSB on X
By Chris Marler
It was a long first day in Hoover, and we didn’t even have a rain delay. That’s surely coming like it does every year, but in the meantime four teams advanced in the bracket and two kept their postseason hopes alive for at least one more day. Here’s our recap of day one in Hoover.
The ABS system was A-OK IMHO
People are piling on and misguidedly blaming ABS for a frustratingly long first day in Hoover. Unlike Will Smith, we are not going to blame the robots though. (That’s an I, Robot reference and it’s very dated.)
One of the biggest complaints about ABS before the games ever even started this week was that it would make the games longer. That was a dumb and misinformed complaint from the beginning. Players only have three seconds to ask for an ABS challenge and most of the challenges last under :20-:30 seconds. There were ten challenges in the very first game of the day between Missouri and Ole Miss. The game lasted over four hours, but that wasn’t because of ABS. It’s because there were 18 runs scored and seven combined pitching changes between the two teams.
ABS system has been… interesting so far to say the least. Mizzou is 5/6 and the last one overturned is a ball in 49/50 states.
Challenges are being overused and the zone is way too big in this SEC tournament imo. OM has definitely been hurt by it.
pic.twitter.com/l1Uf5caMln— Garrett Armbrust (@4thandsaturday) May 19, 2026
The story here is not that ABS is wrong, holding up games, or somehow creating issues in the games themselves. It’s that in that game alone, there were ten challenges and eight of them were overturned in favor of the players and coaches. That means that the umpires hired and paid by the league itself were incorrect 80 percent of the time.
Unless you’re a meteorologist or J-Lo wedding planner, those numbers are staggeringly bad.
South Carolina is finally in coaching search season
South Carolina’s season was painfully long and tough to watch. Sorry, I should’ve clarified. South Carolina’s baseball season was painfully long and tough to watch. Thankfully, it came to an end on Tuesday. That’s always a brutal day for any ballplayer who may never pick up a bat, ball, and glove again at a competitive level. For the South Carolina program though as a whole, it’s a great day.
Give me a minute and I’ll still find a way to blame Paul Mainieri for this…
Unreal. 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️ pic.twitter.com/gjY0b4CPZK
— Chris Marler (@Vern_Funquist) May 20, 2026
The Gamecocks’ baseball program used to sit at the mountain top of the SEC and college baseball. Now it’s a laughing stock that just finished with the most losses in a single season in program history and has 13 wins in SEC play over the last two seasons combined. The short list for coaches is who you’d expect. Kevin Schnall of Coastal Carolina and Dan Fitzgerald of Kansas are both at the top. Former player Landon Powell, who has turned North Greenville to a DII powerhouse, is on the shortlist as well. The resources are in place for South Carolina to be a contender in this league. They have the seventh highest operating budget of any team in the country for college baseball.
I am rarely a fan of the cliche adage, “College (insert sport here) is better when _____ is relevant.” Especially when people say it about Tennessee football because Tennessee fans deserve nothing but whiskey and sadness. But, college baseball is better when South Carolina is relevant. Hopefully they’re about to be again with this hire.
Vanderbilt and LSU stay alive
Vanderbilt came from behind against Kentucky to advance to day two of the tournament and play Florida. LSU held off Oklahoma in the wee hours of the morning to keep their season alive by the thinnest of margins. They now will face Auburn on Wednesday night barring any weather delays.
That’s all good news for both teams. There was some bad news as well for LSU. Starting pitcher William Schmidt got scratched from his start right before game time. Then, after sliding into home headfirst, freshman phenom Omar Serna seemed to have lacerated his hand while making contact with the catcher’s spikes. Neither is expected to play the rest of the tournament, and both have been arguably the best pitcher and hitter for the Tigers in the final month of the season.
To put it mildly, that bleauxs.
✌️More Tigers Come On Home @Monster_Milam99 | SECN pic.twitter.com/3HYJ85tBiA
— LSU Baseball (@LSUbaseball) May 20, 2026
Day Two Schedule
We’ll be off and running at 9:30 AM CST again on Wednesday with four more games. Anytime you can get postseason baseball starting an hour before Chick-Fil-A breakfast ends, well then that’s a special day.
Game 5 (9:30 a.m. CT): No. 8 Mississippi State vs. No. 16 Missouri
Game 6 (30 minutes after conclusion of Game 5): No. 5 Florida vs. No. 12 Vanderbilt
Game 7 (4:30 p.m. CT): No. 7 Arkansas vs. No. 10 Tennessee
Game 8 (30 minutes after conclusion of Game 7): No. 6 Auburn vs. No. 14 LSU
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