Who will win the SEC Baseball Tournament? No one really knows, but here's one prediction for what will happen this week in Hoover, Ala.
To give you a “inside-baseball” tip, anyone who tells you they know what’ll happen this week in Hoover, Ala. at the SEC Tournament is lying to you. Including this writer. At best, all we can do is try to predict what will most likely happen, but that’s not very entertaining.
So, those us making predictions will try and add a twist to get your attention. Sometimes that comes in the form of a specific statistical metric or with someone admitting the most likely thing to happen is a “chalk” bracket.But sometimes the best way to make tournament picks is just to go off your gut instinct. That’s what I’ve done and you can judge for yourself if I’m crazy or not: Staff writer Taylor Hodges's 2025 SEC Baseball Tournament predictions. / Taylor Hodges/Vanderbilt Commodores On SIFlorida and Mississippi State are two of the SEC’s hottest teams, Oklahoma has been slumping and Kentucky nearly won two games against Vanderbilt. Missouri is, well…it is what it is.Now we get to the part where an interesting strategy comes to mind. Teams in the first round will use their ace pitcher. But what about the teams with a bye? Should they start their ace? Or would, for example, Tennessee be better off saving the nation’s strikeout leader and try to win with Marcus Phillips and its bullpen against Alabama ? That would allow the Volunteers to send Doyle to the mound against Texas and make it very hard to pick against Tennessee. So, that’s the scenario I went with in my predictions. That same scenario could decide who the Volunteers play in the tournament’s semifinals. Vanderbilt will face Georgia, Kentucky or Oklahoma in the quarterfinals and my prediction has it being Georgia. The Commodores have been great at the plate in the last couple of weeks, but they have struggled mightily against the SEC’s best pitchers. Does Georgia feel like its second-best pitcher is good enough to win the Bulldogs’ first game and send its best pitcher to start against Vanderbilt? Maybe. Vanderbilt won the game Curley started this season, but he did pitch six scoreless innings. Conversely, JD Thompson had one of hisThese last three picks are all gut feelings based on what’s already happened. If Tennessee makes it this far and uses Doyle on Wednesday, he could possibly start on three days’ rest against the Commodores andAs for the other game, anytime my initial reaction is to pick against LSU, I usually end up wrong. So, my gut tells me to follow that logic and pick LSU to win.This pick comes to entirely how Vanderbilt uses its pitchers in the previous two games. The Commodores have three SEC-proven starting pitchers. But the Commodores’ quarterfinal game will be on Thursday. Should they win that game, the semifinal game would be Saturday and the final on Sunday. Could Thompson start both Thursday and Sunday? LSU may not have the same option available . LSU, to get to the finals, will have to win games Friday and Saturday, potentially leaving the Tigers with their third-best starting pitcher or a bullpen game to win the tournament. I think, in my bracket, we’ll see Thompson start Sunday too. If Connor Fennell isn’t used Saturday, he could come in for relief. That’s two of Vanderbilt’s best pitchers right there, plus the rest of the Commodores’ pitching staff which can match LSU pitcher-for-pitcher.Taylor Hodges is a staff writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI covering all-things Vanderbilt. Taylor brings more than a decade’s worth of award-winning sports writing, photography and video experience covering every level of sports — from Little League baseball to professional sports and other sports like hunting and fishing. Taylor is fueled by his lifelong passion for sports that began the same day Kirk Gibson hit his legendary World Series walk-off home run, Arkansas beat Texas in Austin and No. 4 Notre Dame beat No. 1 Miami in the Catholics vs. Convicts game.
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