SEC Baseball Delivers WILD Opening Weekend - Biggest Storylines for Texas & MORE - SEC Squad Show

0:00It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Oh, could this vintage store be any cuter? Right. And the best part? They accept discover. Accept discover? In a little place like this? I don't think so, Jennifer. Oh, yeah, huh. Discover's accepted where I like to shop. Come on, baby. Get with the times. Right. So we shouldn't get the parachute pants? These are making a comeback. I think. Discover's accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. Based on the February 2025 Nielsen Report. Hey, everyone. This is Ross Jackson, one of the hosts of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Thank you for being here, because your support means everything. And if you're looking for another way to support the show that you love, while getting something awesome in return, check out the Every Day or Club. You get ad free episodes of your favorite Lockdown show, access to a member's only group chat for fans of your team.

1:01And you can even jump into the national chats and talk about whatever's happening across the league. Tap the Every Day or Club link in the show notes to learn more. Week one of SEC plays in the books. How did your team do? We're talking ball with the SEC squad. From Alabama to Tennessee, from Georgia to Oklahoma, from Auburn to Texas. It's the local experts of the Lockdown Podcast Network, bringing you scoops, breakdowns, and the most comprehensive preview of the upcoming SEC weekend. It's the SEC squad, and we have a seat for you. Perfueling some thin skin are prohibited. Squad up, you're part of the SEC squad. What is up? Welcome to the SEC baseball squad. Appreciate you guys for joining us here, making all of our shows your first listen. We're a part of the Lockdown Podcast. Now, we've got a full house in here today. I'm hosting tonight, Eric Kane, Lockdown Balls. We had Corey Burton, Lockdown Vanny, Matt Muscona,

2:01Lockdown LSU, Zach Blackberry, Lockdown Auburn, Brian Kellner, Lockdown Texas Longhorns, and Jimmy Stein, Lockdown Bama, SEC play. Week number one is in the book. So, how do we do? Who wants to take it over right now? How do we do? SEC play week number one. I'll go first, clean sweep, one Auburn, one of three teams to sweep their opponents in conference play. And I'm going to say it. I think Missouri tried to cheat Friday night with the whole light debacle. I think there's an absolute joke that they're playing SEC baseball. Their field is garbage. The lighting situation is absolutely trashed. I was like, inexcusable. What happened Friday night? Auburn finally gets something going. It's a home run to kind of potentially bust a thing open. And no, we're going to pause the game for an hour and a half, unbelievable. But ball don't lie. Auburn ended up sweeping, which is nice. You're apparently knocked the lights out. There it is. It was a lights out performance.

3:01Yeah, I think that's fair. I think it's very good. Missouri couldn't wait. Couldn't wait for that one tweet. They were saving up for Saturday. And well, they didn't really turn out too well because they got swept away from the double header. Or so. Yeah, that's that's some bushly right there. Again, this is the southeastern conference. Baseball is taken seriously here. I know Missouri still technically knew the league. It's been about, you know, however many years. But embarrassing. Hey, well, I'm still very new to the conference. I didn't think we ever complained about playing Missouri in baseball. But apparently we have to complain about that. It feels like that's a road series you want in this conference. So congrats on the three easy wins, Zach. I feel like we'll get to settle it this weekend, calendar. I can't wait. Mm-hmm. Well, it will. It should be fun. Yeah. I'll I'll go next. I mean, I'm. I was shocked that that we took the series from LSU Matt. That was that was not something I had expected. I thought maybe we'd get one as bad as Vanderbilt was struggling.

4:02I mean, LSU had their had their fair share of struggles too. This this season coming into this series. But man, it just Vandy's bats just opened up this weekend. And that was that was nice to see. It's hard to win in the SEC. It's harder to win on the road in the SEC. It's just a it's just a truth. These things are 30 game marathons and people tend to overreact after the first three. The LSU Vandy series was interesting because neither pitching staff decided they wanted to be any good. LSU walked 25 guys over the course of three games. The LSU scored the first game on Sunday without putting a ball in play. I mean, that's that's pretty incredible. So I think LSU and Vandy are two teams right now that are both fighting it a little bit. Very talented teams. I mean, Vanderbilt's already had 52 homers on the season. Yeah. And LSU has as many pro prospects on this roster as Jay Johnson's had during his time in Baton Rouge.

5:04There's a big difference between a collection of really talented players and being a really good team. Last year was not a very talented LSU team by their standard won the national championship because they were a great team. This is a talented group of players that's not quite figured out what they want to be yet. Jimmy Stein at Rough Weekend getting swept by Kentucky won't went wrong. Well, we talked about it on the show here every week. Really, Alabama's record was good. A lot of things were good. But as we said all along, what I say that had been kind of held together with glue and spit. I think it was my and then the glue and spit fell apart. You know, on the road at Kentucky, like Matt said, winning on the road in this league's tough. Kentucky's good. They won 13 games a row. I mean, everybody in the league is pretty good. But Kentucky's playing well. All three games were competitive in the end. So I felt all along. This Alabama team is good. Look, nobody should look forward to, hey, Alabama, that's a team we're going to sweep, especially in Tuscaloosa. But really, there's six or seven hitters in the lineup that are SEC. Where are they?

6:04Not nine. There's three SEC starting pictures. But they're all sort of Saturday, Sunday guys. And the bullpen is a bigger problem than the first two. So this is not a great Alabama team. I think it's going to be a real struggle for them to get to 500. But I think we all know that a 500 team in this league is really good. Will Alabama ever be good enough to get there? They'll find out a lot more this weekend at home against a 3-0 Florida team. But hey, this is life in the SEC. It's a my fight in a ditch. Yeah, no kidding. Brad Texas dropped the opener on Friday, but won the the next two games to take the series over Ole Miss. Yeah, look, we just wanted to feel what all of you guys have felt multiple times this year. You know, we're coming back down to Earth a little bit. But look, Friday was rough. I mean, Texas had a 7-3 league going into the ninth inning. And the bullpen, which has been great all season long, completely imploded. Hit a couple of guys, walked a couple of guys, and then gave up a go ahead.

7:04Grand slam. Texas tight back. In the bottom of the ninth, the four-sextre innings, but obviously they ended up dropping that one in 11. It's really the first bit of adversity that Texas has faced this year. Obviously, their first loss, but they hadn't really been trailing at all in any of these games. So I was very curious to see how they would respond on Saturday and Sunday. I don't know if they win those two games. They outscored Ole Miss 19-4. Awesome pitching performances from Luke Harrison and Dylan Valanthus. It's unfair that Texas can try to out Valanthus on a Sunday. And the bats look, even in the loss, you score eight runs with this Texas pitching staff. That should be enough to win just about every single night. The bats were great in all three games. So obviously disappointed to drop one, but the long horns look. We don't complain about series wins in this conference. Texas was able to get the job done with really good showings on Saturday and Sunday. Yeah, never complained about a series win, especially in this league. Anybody see the ending to the Tennessee Georgia game on Sunday? All that. A brutal bat. The celebration really drove the nail in.

8:07Yeah. I mean, that's gone viral. And that's funny if you're not a Tennessee fan, I get that. Did anybody watch the game? That should be funny, even if you are a Tennessee fan. Like, that's just an objectively funny thing. The bat is like, yeah. And then all of a sudden he looks up and it's robbed. You're like, oh, well, what's even worse than that is Tennessee led five nothing after three. And, you know, stranded five been on base in the next two endings. It could have been ahead, you know, four, you know, nine, ten runs or whatever. And George, I don't know how good George is. I think George is a good team. I don't know if George is a top 10 team. I think they kind of beat up on outside competition. They didn't play many. I do think that lineup is good. They got some talent in the order. Daniel Jackson, the great player. Trey Phelps, a good player. Brennan Hudson's a really good player. But, you know, I think that lineup's legit. And I think Tennessee pitched it pretty well all weekend long. The bullpen fell apart on Sunday. And ironically, I, the guy that, you know, got, got hose theirs. One of Tennessee's best bullpen arms.

9:07And I think he's already been really good this year. I just let them in too long. I don't know what was going on there. He gave up a, you know, it's the seventh inning, five runs seventh. And he had just given up a single and backed back walks. And then you got a, a run scoring single. Another came in on air and then a three run home run. It's like, yeah, take him out there. But you ever had those series wins? And, you know, I felt this way about Tennessee. I have to point George and football this year. You lost the game or you lost the series. But you feel better about your team kind of leaving that series. Because that's kind of where I'm at. Like, it's unfortunate. It's a brutal way to lose down in Athens. But gosh, guys, I thought Tennessee was going to get drilled. I'm going to be honest with you. Tennessee wasn't hitting anything. And now the balls put up a lot of runs. Played solid defense. Pitched a well. Tennessee's pitch well all week or all year long. But I kind of feel better about your team leaving Athens, even though you lost in just the most brutal way possible on Sunday. What do you guys think about Florida? I mean, obviously they, they took out a South Carolina. South Carolina team that I'm not like, you know, to impress with.

10:07But I mean, a sweep in this conference. It doesn't matter who it's against. It seems to be a big deal. What do you guys think about the Gators? They struggled to score Friday and Saturday. Maybe that's maybe that's a, you know, something. I think they scored maybe a total of about four runs on Friday and Saturday collectively. But still won both games. So it is Florida. They're going to have dudes. That's the thing about this leak. Yeah. Everybody's got dudes. It's a dude league. And even the quote bad teams have dudes. Football's the same way. I mean, you know, it's South Carolina. I mean, this baseball show now football. South Carolina could finish four and eight in the league next year. And produce the number one pick in the draft and Dylan Stewart. And baseball is no different though. There's, there's no team in this league that doesn't have dudes. Yeah. I think the bigger. I'm sorry. I think the bigger story in that series is how bad South Carolina is. They may not have actually, they may actually not have dudes. And that's. It's interesting. No, it's interesting here.

11:07Yeah. I mean, Jimmy, you're generally speaking. You're, you're right. I mean, it's the southeastern conference. But South Carolina has been bitten by bad luck. And people here are actually paying attention because it's pulmonary coaching there. And obviously, it was at LSU for 15 years and won a national championship here. And so people were interested to see how that was going to go. And they've had some bad injury luck. They lost their Friday night kind of injury. But man, that is a roster a year ago that was void of talent. They didn't really make a requisite commitment financially. And they are awful. I mean, Missouri, remember, guys, Missouri a year ago was, was Missouri 024 or 027 when they swept A&M? Did they sweep A&M in the penultimate weekend or the last? I can't remember. But, but like Missouri was as bad an SEC baseball team as I've ever seen a year ago. This South Carolina team may actually challenge that. Like they are, they are atrocious. And I. The question was, what do we make of Florida after sweeping South Carolina? I make nothing of Florida after this again.

12:07So we're talking about who might be the worst team in the South Eastern Conference. But my question is, who's the best? It's week one. There's a lot of noncon in there. But it's week one kind of who's leading the charge here in the SEC. And while that answer is we have no clue just yet because it's too early. We'll talk more when we return right here. Baseball squad up right here talking SEC baseball on the lockdown podcast network. Squat. Squat. What? Big a stretch. We're talking baseball here. But you know what month it is. It's a lot, a lot of fun. Basketball seasons is here. Buzzer meters, bracket busters, those unforgettable moments. And everyone's talking about next day being their line for something like that. That's bucket list stuff. The hard part is always actually getting tickets. Long queues, prices, jumping around, surprise fees that check out. The game timeout gets fancy advantage with constant innovation. It's how you unlock amazing tickets and experiences in just a few taps. Incredibly simple to use the game time guarantee means 100 or 100% legitimate tickets delivered on time at the best price. And here's the best part fees are included in the price that you pay.

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16:10We had the non-com portion of the schedule outside of mid weeks. I think we can all agree Texas Mississippi states. They're definitely up there. What to make of LSU Vanderbilt and a C some other team Florida. Not quite sure yet. If we were picking who the best team is in the SEC right now and who you think is going to be the best team by the end of the season. Brad, who are you picking? Well, I see Zach is a little upset, right? I mean, he's ready for his Auburn Tigers to prove this week that they are obviously a big midweek game coming up against Georgia Tech. And then the Longhorns coming to town this weekend. So look, I think right now, I think it's fair to say that Texas is the best team in the SEC. But what do we really know? There's been one conference series so far. And look, the Longhorns aren't even in first place in the SEC because three teams swept in Texas isn't one of them. But I love this Texas roster incredibly talented. Obviously, we'll find out who they are this weekend playing their first road series of 2026 against the top five Auburn squad. So Zach, obviously look, if Auburn wins this series, obviously if either teams sweeps,

17:10both teams are going to feel great about their standing as the best team in the league. But even a series win would be huge for either side in this one. Yeah, I think you have to say Texas right now, BK. I agree with you. But look, if Auburn goes three in one this week, I mean, I think you have to say Auburn against Georgia Tech. And then obviously against Texas, they were able to pull off an incredible week like that. I think we might be talking about the Auburn Tigers in a totally different light when we all get together next week. How are they going to play the midweek, though? How are they going to go about it? I think we're going to treat it like usual. I mean, the guy that they're pitching, you know, Alvarez, he's been pretty solid up to this point. To me, I think they want this guy to emerge and be a weekend starter. I think they believe that, but nobody on Auburn's weekend staff is like dropped off at all. They can't move anybody out because they've all been incredible. So I think Auburn really does feel like they've got four solid guys. So yeah, I think they'll trot him out there. They will trot him out there.

18:10They've already announced it against Georgia Tech four o'clock on Tuesday. It's going to be a massive, massive midweek. Yeah, midweek. So it was a plan of four o'clock because they don't have lights on the field. And a four o'clock. Supposedly because of weather, I thought they moved it up because I don't want to brag. But we've got a postseason tournament game on campus Tuesday night. So nobody freak out about that number one overall seed in IT. You don't mean the brag, but yeah, because they announced it. They were moving it up when Auburn is hosting a 9 p.m. tip in the NIT. But apparently it's not related. Apparently it's because it's going to get cold and there's weather. So there you go. Oh, there you go. There's a lot of weather. I would love to turn lights off on Georgia Tech. But we wouldn't do that because we have a respectable baseball program. That's going to be an interesting game as a top five matchup in the midweek. I mean, Georgia Tech ranked number three. That'll be interesting. I'm going on the road to Plansman Park. See how that goes. But I think I agree with everybody. Texas is the best team in the league. I mean, with Rio Austin, Volantis, book end in your rotation.

19:10I don't know that anybody in the league has that. And I mean, you're hitting 335, cumulatively. That's there. I mean, look, Sloss is a great coach, man. They've recruited well. They've invested properly in the portal. They're really, really good, man. And you know, like it's just the whole objective of the SEC. If your objective is to get to Omaha and win it there, it's, how do you position yourself over a 30 game gauntlet to make sure that you're playing at home in the regional and super regional round? And then it's just, can you go win a weekend? Can you go win two weekends? And if you do, you're in Omaha. And can you play your best over a weekend and half in Nebraska? And I think Texas is a team that would be, if that's a team that's not a top eight national seed by the end of this year, that would be a stunning upset. I think the bigger question is, how do you make sense, how do you make sense of that clump of teams where like Arkansas and Mississippi State had a great series this weekend that could have gone, any of those games could have gone either way at a top five matchup, Arkansas at bomb.

20:11Obviously won the series. We could talk about LSU and Vandy to traditionally talented powerful teams that aren't really playing very well right now. Auburn deserves, you know, consideration in the conversation right now. Because Ole Miss two, I mean, Ole Miss taking a game from Texas and I think Mike Bianco's got a pretty good squad there that might be the sort of off the radar team in the league so far that's kind of interesting. But, you know, if Hunter Elliott regains the form of his freshman year when he won the national championship, then you can, if you have a true ace that can pace you on a Friday to win a series opener and you split games two and three, I mean, that's how you pace yourself toward being a regional host in a national seed. So I wouldn't sleep on Ole Miss either. Yeah, absolutely. And also, Mississippi State, I mean, you know, we'll see what Vandy has in store. They play Indiana in the midweek. That game moved up to 2 p.m. because of frigid temperatures. And then you get, you know, why it may do is somebody who, he won SEC freshmen of the week.

21:11He was awesome. He pitched a but. He was awesome. Yeah, he was, he was dealing. And so we're going to find out just kind of this Vanderbilt team has been very up and down. They beat down and run rule. The teams they're supposed to run rule. And then they get slaughtered by the teams or not. And then, of course, they take the series against LSU, which I'm like, okay, this is going against the trend here. But they go to Mississippi State. So we'll see what they have. We'll see it Mississippi State has in that. But like, I feel like there's a whole bunch, I feel like it's like Texas, Auburn and like a whole bunch of teams jumbled up kind of. You want me for not mentioning Oklahoma, either. I mean, Oklahoma is the top 10 team. And Skip Johnson always does an awesome job with his pitchers. And you know, Cam Johnson, who is an LSU transfer, who's 98 from the left side. If he throws it over the plate, he's, he can be dominant. He struggled this weekend. I think it's seven walks this weekend. But he's been really good for them this year. And that LSU Oklahoma this weekend at the box is going to be a very compelling series. Is Oklahoma for real? And LSU kind of desperately needs to win a series at home.

22:11Yeah. All right. Out the door. We just got that from Matt on what LSU's got this weekend. We are from Brad and Zach. Cory, what do you got this weekend? Well, we have Mississippi State. We're on the road at Mississippi State midweek against Indiana. So pretty tough week there. Again, if you can go three and three in the week or two and two in the week, I think it's pretty successful considering who you're playing. So I'm excited about that. Can the bullpen actually throw some good innings and quit walking people? I mean, that's, it's a walk fest. And that series with LSU has, as Matt described as well. It's a walk fest on from both sides. There you go. Yeah, nothing's worse than a lot of free passes on Sunday when I get away day. Jimmy, what's Alabama got this weekend? Florida at home. I think Alabama is in a position this early guys where you can't get swept again or it's, it, the hill gets too steep at that point. You got to win this series against Florida. This is the position this league can put you in when you say things like, well, you've got to win this series against Florida. But Alabama needs something good to happen.

23:11They need two out of three. They got a tough midweek game too. It's not Georgia Tech, but they're at South Alabama in Mobile tomorrow night. That's not a gimmie for most teams in this league. And then the three games against Florida. So Alabama needs to win two of three against Florida. But even one win right now feels, would feel pretty good. Yeah. Tennessee also has a really challenging midweek coming up tonight. Eastern Kentucky. That tip off, that tip off that first pitch was moved up a couple hours. It's a frigid cold temperatures. So big midweek coming up just like you guys in South Alabama and Georgia Tech. Eastern Kentucky and then hosting Missouri this weekend. And again, I know Missouri had a really good non-conference portion before they got in the SEC play. One of the most improved teams in that regard in the SEC. I'm never going to say it's just you expect to have a sweep in SEC play because that's not how this league is. I think Missouri is Friday and Saturday pictures decent. Yeah, Tennessee needs to have a weekend though. You got to take care of business at home, especially seeing that gauntlet coming up.

24:13And I don't care how it looks. She's playing right now that's going to be a huge series later in the season and Tennessee is on the road to Vanderbilt the next weekend. So you got to take this series when it take two out of three sweep if you can. And I pick up some momentum ahead and do the rest of the slate. So yeah, it's that time of the year SEC baseball. It's like nothing else. It is the best. And we talk about it every single Tuesday right here on SEC squad. For Zach Blackerby, host of Lockdown Auburn, Brad Calder, host of Lockdown Longhorn, Jimmy Sin, host of Lockdown Bama, Matt Miscona, Lockdown LSU, Cory Burton, Lockdown Vandy. I am Eric came with Lockdown balls. Appreciate you guys for being here. Join the everyday or close for all of our shows. Lockdown balls dot supercast dot com and Lockdown, whatever these guys shows are at supercast dot com as well. promo code March given that bracket breakdown challenge promo code March for your first month free for the locked on every day or club. Appreciate you guys. Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday, everybody.