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SEC Baseball Week 3 Power Rankings: 5 undefeated teams remain, A&M has a bad week and bad luck
By Joe Cox
Published:
After a couple weeks of SEC baseball, the league still boasts 5 undefeated teams. It’s not necessarily the 5 teams people might have picked out, with Alabama, Oklahoma and South Carolina sitting ahead of dominant teams like LSU and Texas A&M at this point. Again, the standard caution of not over-reacting to games against Directional State Tech applies. But there were exciting moments, like Alabama’s potentially season-turning win. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Heading into Week 3, here’s where SEC baseball stands.
16. Missouri (4-4)
The Tigers haven’t been awful… but when the team’s ERA of 7.15 is almost double the 15th place team’s ERA (Alabama at 3.86), the story is pretty clear. A 10-2 loss to Alabama State was pretty tough to watch.
15. South Carolina (9-0)
Unbeaten and fifteenth? Somebody’s got to be here, and Carolina’s lack of competition drops them to this spot. A bunch of close wins over weak teams suggests that 9-0 could have a fool’s gold component. But Ethan Petry’s .452 batting average says that could be wrong.
14. Auburn (8-1)
A couple of run-rule victories over Wright State didn’t hurt the Tigers. They’ve got a ranked win over Troy and are a couple runs from being 8-0. Cooper McMurray’s .469 mark at the plate (with 5 doubles and 2 homers) is a nice start.
13. Kentucky (6-1)
A 24-3 win over Evansville demonstrated that Kentucky has a pretty high ceiling. Nic McKay’s 2-0 mark with a 0.00 ERA is a good sign.
12. Ole Miss (7-1)
It was a much easier week for the Rebels, but with 3 wins over ranked teams, the Rebels should probably be higher than this spot. Hunter Elliot’s 11 scoreless innings on the mound is a noteworthy point for Ole Miss.
11. Mississippi State (6-2)
Yes, the Bulldogs have 2 losses. But each loss came to a ranked team, which should be indicative of the fact that they’ve seen legitimate competition in the young season. Still, there’s plenty to like about this team. We gave him a shoutout last week, but here it is again for Pico Kohn. All he’s done is strike out 22 hitters in 11 1/3 innings pitched.
10. Texas (6-1)
The Longhorns didn’t have a bad week, but scoring just 11 runs in 3 games to squeak past Dartmouth did cost them a few style points. This is still a really good team– picking a team this good as 10th in anything seems odd. But Texas is 13th in the SEC in batting average (.285) and tied for next to worst in homers (7). Texas has to wake up the bats, because 11 runs in a 3-game series will lead to a lot of losses in SEC play.
9. Alabama (9-0)
The Tide beat NC State, but on Sunday, seemed to have been bested. The Tide trailed 10-0 to Ohio State in the 4th inning and there went Alabama’s undefeated start. Until it didn’t. Justin Lebron started playing Home Run Derby and Alabama walked off a 12-10 win. This was a culture shifter– potentially. Of course, so is having Lebron, whose 6 homers and 21 RBIs eclipse the rest of the league. But if Alabama looks back in May on a season that wildly exceeded expectations, that Ohio State game will be a turning point.
8. Oklahoma (7-0)
Staying undefeated by taking down top ten Oregon State and Virginia squads definitely grabbed our attention. Kyson Witherspoon looks like an All-American candidate on the hill (21 strikeouts is third in the SEC). At the plate, everybody is getting it done. A .341 mark against some of the competition OU saw is certainly impressive. The Sooners are one team that might have been massively underrated (even by us).
7. Vanderbilt (8-1)
The Commodores have had a nice week and are coming into focus a bit. It’s going to be another season without a ton of power– Vandy’s 5 homers are last in the SEC. But the team is hitting .304 and with 20 doubles, Vandy is second in the SEC in that category. RJ Austin is hitting .455 with 2 doubles and 3 triples. Add in 8 walks and his OBP is near .600. A 3.74 ERA is 14th in the SEC, but with 112 strikeouts, Vandy’s excellent at missing bats, which should be more significant as league play approaches.
6. Georgia (9-1)
An undefeated week with a couple of run-rule wins says Georgia jumps a couple spots this week. UGA’s bats came around. Transfer Ryland Zaborowski is red-hot at .455 with 15 RBIs (third in the league). Control could be a concern, with 39 walks allowed standing as the most in the SEC. But Georgia’s upside looked much more apparent this week than last.
5. Arkansas (7-1)
From the “They are who we thought they are” world, take the Razorbacks. Scoring 2 runs on 2 straight days yielded their first loss of the season. The pitching is all we thought it could be. With a 2.28 ERA, this is a group that can keep the Hogs competitive. Zach Root’s 18 strikeouts in 10 innings is worth note. But can they hit? A relatively meager 60 runs in 8 games suggests some issues, as does a .294 batting average, already a tick below the league mark of .310.
4. Florida (8-0)
The Gators continue to look razor-sharp. It’s not been a massively difficult schedule, but with 4 run-rule victories already, there’s plenty to like. Start with that pitching, with a league-best 1.36 ERA and 105 strikeouts, which trails only Vanderbilt. Liam Peterson has been superb (2-0, 0.00 ERA, 10 innings, 4 hits, 16 strikeouts). At the plate, a .342 batting average and 26 stolen bases is almost as impressive. There’s certain to be some bumps in the road, but this is a sharp Florida team looking very different than a year ago at this point.
3. LSU (7-1)
The Tigers did lose a game to Omaha, but there’s still no shortage of strengths around this team. After 8 games, the impressive pitch depth is very much in evidence. LSU’s 1.46 ERA is second in the SEC and Anthony Eyanson has been especially sharp (0.82 ERA, 13 strikeouts in 11 innings). If there’s a downside, it’s an apparent lack of power– just 7 homers so far for LSU in eight games. Still, nothing wrong here. If LSU keeps pitching like Arkansas, they’re going to have a very successful season.
2. Texas A&M (5-2)
Two losses? Yeah, Texas State and Cal Poly have now beaten the nation’s presumptive No. 1 team. But the much more significant news was a season-ending shoulder injury to Gavin Grahovac, who was the second-best bat in the Aggies lineup. A year ago, Grahovac mashed 23 home runs. But in 2025, he ends up with just 22 at bats. That’s a big loss.
However, nobody’s giving up on A&M. They’re still insanely talented. But they’ve been less than astonishing against some fairly average competition. Accordingly, we take them down a notch, although they could drop more, if we were critically inclined.
1.Tennessee (8-0)
Are we overreacting? Maybe. But A&M lost 2 games and a significant player. Nobody’s exactly writing off the Aggies, but at this point, Tennessee is looking better. The Coaches Poll jumped the Vols over the Aggies, so maybe we’re just thinking like coaches.
Sanford and Hofstra aren’t exactly the ’27 Yankees, but Tennessee has barely broken a sweat this season. Five of UT’s 8 wins are by double-digit margins. UT is hitting .356 and leads the SEC in home runs. The pitching has also been sharp. Stronger competition will await, but for the moment, here are the Vols.
Joe Cox is a columnist for Saturday Down South. He has also written or assisted in writing five books, and his most recent, Almost Perfect (a study of baseball pitchers’ near-miss attempts at perfect games), is available on Amazon or at many local bookstores.
