SEC Tournament: Tennessee baseball v. Vanderbilt game delayed until Thursday

No. 1 seed Tennessee will not make their SEC Tournament debut until Thursday after announcing their game against Vanderbilt has been delayed by the conference, they announced on social media. The start time of the game is still to be determined, but the Volunteers will join LSU as the two programs not getting a chance to take the field over the first two days thanks to weather issues.

The SEC Tournament site in Hoover, Alabama has come under heavy rainfall over the past two days, with more in the forecast over the coming days. However, the grounds crew has worked hard to get as many games played as possible by covering the field and working around the clock.

Tuesday featured more than six hours in total rain delays and forced the conference to delay its final game while still making Vanderbilt play Ole Miss beyond 12:30 a.m. local time. Wednesday started with a lengthy delay as well, with Kentucky and Auburn still playing a first-round game.

The delayed game between Tennessee and Vanderbilt will not send either team home, creating the potential for both to play a double header at some point during the week in order to reach the championship game on Sunday.

SEC Tournament suffers major delays

The SEC Tournament got off to a rocky start on Tuesday morning when multiple rain delays pushed back the end of the 9:30 a.m. game between Alabama and Georgia. From there, another rain delay forced the first pitch between Florida and South Carlina to be pushed all the way back into the scheduled night session at 6:45 p.m. local time. With six hours in total rain delays, part of the schedule was changed.

Ole Miss and Vanderbilt then squeezed a third game into Day 1, with the potential of playing late into the night. However, one game was pushed back to Wednesday before suffering more delays through the morning. Auburn and Kentucky played their elimination game and set the slate for the second round begin in the afternoon session.

As games are now pushed further back into Thursday, it remains unclear how things could play out if more weather delays any more games.