SEC Baseball: Implications of the Week Ahead

  From KSR College's resident baseball expert David Mulloy:   -- Yesterday the Cats entered the clubhouse for the weekend after a sweep of Alabama.  The sweep combined with losses by Florida, LSU, and South Carolina gave the Bat Cats a half game lead over the Tigers and Gamecocks and a game and a two and a half game lead over Florida in the SEC standings entering Sunday.     -- Today's rubber match between South Carolina and Georgia was rained out and will not be made up.  The cancellation was a de facto win for the Gamecocks and renders the Cats tiebreaker meaningless barring an unlikely rainout next week.  South Carolina will enter the last weekend of SEC play a half game behind the Cats for the SEC and SEC East lead.    -- Vanderbilt continued their hot streak as they took two out of three games from LSU who entered the weekend tied with South Carolina atop the SEC standings.  The Tigers are now a game behind the Cats in the standings but have locked up the SEC West title.   -- Florida still has a chance to win the SEC and SEC East as they are just two games back of the Cats heading into the season finale at Auburn.  Auburn is 12-15 and the Gators, who own the tiebreaker over the Cats and Gamecocks, are talented enough to win all three games.     -- What is interesting about next week is that LSU and South Carolina face each other in Columbia in the final weekend of the season.  It is very unlikely that the series will end in the sweep for either team, which will give the Cats a bit of breathing room.  If the Cats and Tigers end up tied atop the SEC leaderboard, the two teams would share the SEC Title but UK would get the top seed in the SEC tournament and a first round bye.   Moral of the story: The Cats control their own destiny with three games left in the season.  The series against 25th ranked Mississippi State will not be easy but two wins will do the trick barring a South Carolina sweep of LSU.   Bottom line for UK fans: Root for the Tigers next week, both LSU and Auburn, even if it means LSU wins the league title.  A first round bye in the SEC tournament is much more valuable to the Cats.