The annual Southeastern Conference baseball tournament is set to begin Tuesday in Hoover, Alabama. The tournament will go until Sunday, May 29.
Missouri, which earned a No. 11 seed for the tournament, will not have an easy road. The Tigers (26–29, 9–20) will take on Vanderbilt, ranked No. 10 nationally, on Tuesday. The Commodores (41–15, 18–12) were given a No. 6 seed for the SEC tournament.
The Tigers were swept by Vanderbilt earlier in the season. Though Missouri was leading in the ninth inning in the first game of the series, a go-ahead home run gave Vanderbilt an 8–6 victory.
In the second game of the series, sophomore pitcher Tanner Houck shut down the Commodores’ bats. He struck out 14 batters in nine innings. Unfortunately for the Tigers, they couldn’t score either. Vanderbilt ultimately won 2–0 in 11 innings.
The third game was nowhere near as close. Vanderbilt clobbered the Tigers 17–7.
The Tigers also met Vanderbilt in the 2015 SEC Tournament. Like game one of the 2016 regular season series, the Commodores needed late-game heroics to knock off Missouri. Vanderbilt tied the game with a single in the ninth inning, then won on a home run in the 10th.
The winner of the Missouri-Vanderbilt game in this week’s tournament will advance to play No. 1 Texas A&M, seeded No. 3 in the tournament because of conference record. The loser is eliminated from the tournament. Win or lose, Vanderbilt will almost certainly make an NCAA Regional. The Tigers’ season, however, will be over if they lose to the Commodores.
Missouri will pitch Houck in the tournament opener. The sophomore is 5–5 with a 2.99 earned run average on the year. Houck is second in the SEC in innings pitched — only behind teammate Reggie McClain — and Houck is fourth in opposing batting average and sixth in strikeouts.
The Tigers’ offense is led by first baseman Zach Lavy. The senior enters the tournament with a .333 batting average and is leading the SEC in slugging percentage (.610) and triples (eight). He also has 18 doubles and 54 runs batted in.
Junior Jake Ring has also put together a strong season for the Tigers. The centerfielder has a .323 batting average and is second in the conference in stolen bases with 25.
To make a deep run into the tournament, the Tigers will need sophomores Shane Benes, Brett Bond and Trey Harris to step up. After showing potential freshman year, all three have struggled throughout the 2016 season. All have batting averages below .225.
First pitch between the Tigers and Commodores is set for 9:30 a.m.
_Edited by George Roberson | groberson@themaneater.com_
