Extra Innings: News and notes from SEC opening weekend

By Chris Marler

It was a great start to the college baseball season and an eventful opening weekend in the SEC. The league itself was dominant out of the gates, as the inaugural season with Texas and Oklahoma got under way. Here are a few highlights from the opening weekend around the league. 

1. Strong Start for the SEC 

The SEC finished the opening weekend of the season with a 37-8 record. Most of the teams were playing inferior competition, but nine teams finished the weekend without a loss, and only one finished with a losing record. That’s a strong start no matter how you look at it. They also went 3-0 against ranked opponents. 

2. Stars get off to hot starts 

Again, the competition isn’t what you’ll see in Hoover or Omaha, but it was a great sign to see some of the best players in the conference get off to hot starts. 

Texas A&M star outfielder Jace Laviolette hit three home runs over the weekend against Elon to start the season. Alabama’s Justin Lebron went 5-for-8 during the weekend series against Bradly. That included a home run, seven runs, and seven RBIs, as well. 

There is a ton of star power in the SEC this year, so it was nice to see some of the brightest ones get hot early. 

3. LSU’s historic start on the mound 

LSU swept Purdue Fort-Wayne as expected at The Box this weekend. However, it wasn’t the 32 runs they scored that were most impressive. It was what they did on the mound. The LSU staff combined for 45 strikeouts on the weekend. That’s the most in a single series since their 1992 season. They had eight guys clocked at over 95 mph on the weekend and the average fastball of every pitcher that toed the rubber was 94.2 mph. 

Above all that, what was easily the most impressive number was two. As in, two total walks surrendered all weekend. 

4. South Carolina gets the Paul Mainieri era off on the right foot

South Carolina played host to Sacred Heart this weekend and was able to get the sweep. They seemed a little off on opening day and the 5-3 final against was less than dominant. However, what happened after opening day was very impressive. The Gamecocks won their next two games by a combined 22-0. 

The bats were quieter than expected, as only three players collected three hits or more on the weekend. However, the pitching staff was nothing short of fantastic out of the gates. All three starters went five innings and all three struck out nine batters. On the weekend the Gamecocks pitching staff allowed only three runs and surrendered just four walks. One pitcher had two of the runs and three of the walks by himself.