ICYMI: SEC baseball drama, dog races, and big upsets
05/04/2025
(Photo by Texas A&M Athletics)
By Chris Marler
Weekend’s are busy. Yard work, trips to Home Depot, maybe Bed Bath & Beyond. Like Frank the Tank said, “I don’t know. I don’t know if we’ll have enough time.”
That’s why we are here. Here’s our SEC baseball weekend recap, in case you missed it.
Texas A&M is No. 1
Not in the country. They are just literally the first team all season who beat LSU when trailing after seven innings. The Tigers came into Sunday’s game 27-0 when leading after seven innings this season. That all came to a crashing halt with two outs in the eighth inning on Sunday.
LSU’s bats were quiet most of the weekend, but the pitching staff was tremendous. Until it wasn’t. The staff held the Aggies best two hitters Jace LaViolette and Caden Sorrell to a combined 1-for-20 with 11 strikeouts before the eighth inning on Sunday. Sadly, in that inning the two went 2-for-2 with 4 RBIs, including the game winning three run bomb off the bat of Sorrell.
#LSU pitching coach Nate Yeskie has had a really nice plan against A&M’s big two in Jace LaViolette and Caden Sorrell. The two All-American talents are a combined 1-for-20 so far in this series with 11 strikeouts. @LSUbaseball
— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogers) May 4, 2025
This has been one of the most competitive series, and dare I say rivalries, in all of the SEC since the Aggies joined the conference. The series record is 18-17 in favor of the Aggies. Hard to get any closer than that. It feels like the Aggies are close to breaking through this season. Even the four losses they’ve piled up over their last two SEC series were all just by one run.
Weirdest weekend ever in Knoxville
The Tennessee-Auburn series felt like a fever dream. It started Friday with an absolute monsoon that Tony Vitello still decided to try and play in. Each of the first two games had to be suspended and restarted the following day. So, basically Saturday and Sunday were fractions of double headers.
For some reason the decision to start Friday’s game riled up Vols fans (even though it was their team who made the decision), and that only got more volatile and palpable as the weekend went on. The umpires did nothing to help themselves all weekend either, and finally on Sunday Tony Vitello had enough and lost his mind.
These strike calls are not even close… what are we doing here?? @SECOfficiating pic.twitter.com/mRNmdZjZst
— JARL 🅅 🄾 🄻GRUUF THE GREATER (@423VOL) May 3, 2025
As odd as it was to see him make the decision to play Friday, and burn his best starter Liam Doyle, I was genuinely impressed that it took him until Game 3 on Sunday to finally get tossed. The umpires were egregiously bad all weekend. They turned at-bats upside down with absurd strike calls, no definitive or consistent strike zone, and everyone saw it all weekend.
All that being said, the toughest pill to swallow for the Vols is the fact that they lost two of three to Auburn and have now lost three straight series and four of their last five.
Wow. Tony Vitello just got tossed and gave each member of the umpiring crew an earful.
Obviously, he’s seen enough. Will it spark Tennessee to a comeback in the rubber game vs. Auburn? pic.twitter.com/P8DYNEgF3N
— SEC Unfiltered (@SECUnfiltered) May 4, 2025
Good for Starkville and good for Mississippi State
Mississippi State, and their fans, deserve some good in their lives. It’s been a tough ride for the baseball program since they won the natty a few years ago, and no football program has had to go through anything close to what theirs has since the tragic passing of Mike Leach.
Firing a national championship winning coach takes guts and doing it before the end of the season was bold. But, so far, it’s been a great decision. The Dawgs swept Kentucky this weekend, and are now 4-0 since Chris Lemonis was fired.
MICHAEL. FREAKING. O’BRIEN. WEB GEM. 💎
📺: https://t.co/Stlij3kMlb#HailState🐶 | #SCTop10 pic.twitter.com/7lz0Ja5kRt
— Mississippi State Baseball (@HailStateBB) May 4, 2025
All of that is great, but what’s even better? WEINER DOG RACES ON THE SAME WEEKEND.
Good for Starkville. Good for State fans. And, good for the Dogs. All of them.
This is the world’s largest wiener dog race. This is the greatest show on turf. This is Mississippi’s Best Festival. This is the Starkville Derby. pic.twitter.com/2XYxdOrHom
— The Bocock Brothers Starkville Derby (@StarkvilleDerby) March 5, 2025