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SEC Baseball Week Three Takeaways: Texas A&M struggles, Tennessee continues power surge

hunterby:Hunter Shelton•about 18 hours•

HunterShelton_

NCAA Baseball: College World Series-Tennessee v Texas A&M
Jun 24, 2024; Omaha, NE, USA; Texas A&M Aggies right fielder Jace Laviolette (17) looks over the field after the loss against the Tennessee Volunteers at Charles Schwab Field Omaha. Mandatory Credit: Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports

Alabama, Oklahoma and Tennessee are among the seven undefeated teams remaining in college baseball following the third weekend of the 2025 season. Conference play is already less than two weeks away.

Week three brought some reality checks for a handful of SEC teams. Preseason No. 1 Texas A&M has now lost four of five. South Carolina was swept by Clemson yet again. Mississippi State and Vanderbilt also had losing weekends.

Others flourished and look primed for the grueling conference schedule ahead. Ten SEC teams had perfect weekends, headlined by Tennessee, new No. 1 LSU, Auburn and Texas, all of whom crushed tournament fields.

Below is a look at the league’s top storylines heading into the first full week of March.

Time to worry about Texas A&M?

In the new age of college sports, head-coaching changes are usually met with mass exodus and roster rebuilds. That was not the case for Texas A&M’s Michael Earley, who stepped up to take the helm in College Station following Jim Schlossnagle’s departure to Texas. The Aggies didn’t lose a single player to the transfer portal, setting the stage for a 2025 roster that was essentially the consensus preseason No. 1 team in the nation.

So, coming out of a disappointing weekend in Houston, now sitting with a 6-4 record and plenty of concerns, what is wrong with the Aggies?

A 14-4 win over woeful Rice snapped a four-game losing streak on Sunday, but that won’t ease any of the 12th Man’s nerves. In its first game of the Astros Foundation College Classic, A&M surrendered three ninth-inning runs in a 3-2 loss to Arizona. It then looked lifeless at the plate again in a 4-0 loss to Oklahoma State on Saturday. A&M found itself on a stunning skid, as it also lost its series finale to Cal Poly the previous weekend and then proceeded to drop a midweek game to Texas State prior to coming to Daikin Park.

Across the four-game skid, A&M scored seven runs and hit .168 (21-125). Opposing pitchers faced the minimum three batters in 15 of 36 innings. A&M hit .115 (3-26) with runners in scoring position and consistently failed to compile good at-bats.

Through the first 10 games of the year, A&M is slashing .247/.371/.452. Preseason National Player of the Year Jace LaViolette is hitting .281 and leads the team with 14 strikeouts. Left fielder Gavin Kash (.207/.343/.345), designated hitter Hayden Schott (.189/.250/.351) and first baseman Blake Binderup (.167/.286/.300) are among those struggling early.

The losing streak followed news that elite third baseman Gavin Grahovac was out for the season with a shoulder injury. Stud outfielder Caden Sorrell was labeled out “for the foreseeable future” ahead of the season-opener and remains out of the lineup heading into March.

Pitching has not been the issue. The left-handed starting trio of Ryan Prager (0.55 ERA), Justin Lamkin (2.70) and Myles Patton (2.12 ERA) are each averaging over five innings per start and are keeping the Aggies in games early. Weston Moss, Brad Rudis and Luke Jackson have all proved reliable out of the bullpen thus far, too.

Perhaps its run-rule win over Rice will spur some momentum back in the right direction. It remains too early to put a team out to pasture for the season, but A&M is already facing some serious adversity ahead of conference play.

“These guys just gotta relax, man, and me included, all of us. Let’s just play baseball,” Earley said postgame Sunday.

A&M begins a five-game week on Tuesday against UTSA and will host New Mexico State for three this weekend. The Aggies could do with a few staunch offensive performances and need to forget about the end of February as soon as possible. Finding consistency through the lineup will be key.

Tennessee continues home run tear in Houston

Tennessee entered the weekend tied for the most home runs in the nation with 21. It left the Astros Foundation College Classic in Houston with 31 total homers and three more wins to improve to 11-0 on the year.

None of Oklahoma State, Rice or Arizona’s pitching staffs could keep the ball in the yard at Daikin Park. That was especially true when facing Vols second baseman Gavin Kilen, as the junior Louisville transfer hit four bombs and drove in seven runs, bringing his homer counter to seven on the year. Kilen went deep in each of his first two at-bats in a 5-2 win over Oklahoma State on Friday, then hit two more on Saturday in a 13-3 thumping of Rice.

First baseman Levi Clark hit a pair as well, bringing his season total to five. Shortstop Dean Curley, third baseman Manny Marin, first baseman Andrew Fischer and catcher Cannon Peebles each notched a big fly, too.

Tennessee’s 31 home runs have now equated to 60 of its 128 runs scored so far this season. If you only counted the runs that the Vols have scored via home runs in their 11 games, they’d still have a 10-1 record on the year — which also speaks to how impressive Tennessee has been on the mound thus far.

Lefty Liam Doyle possesses the top fastball in the nation and has allowed just one earned run and six hits across 14-and-two-thirds innings. He’s at the top of baseball in strikeouts with 34 and has walked just three. Doyle has a 0.61 ERA and is holding hitters to a .130 batting average. Right-hander Marcus Phillips has also been excellent behind him, allowing just two earned runs in 13-and-a-third. The staff struck out 45 batters in Houston. Eight Vols pitchers have made three or more appearances and have a sub-2.00 ERA thus far. They’ve looked this good and haven’t even added a fully-healthy AJ Russell back into the mix yet, either.

Tennessee, No. 2 this week’s D1Baseball Top 25, has looked like a well-oiled machine worthy of a top ranking through the first three weekends of the season. A down year following a National Championship has been common as of late, but so far, Tony Vitello’s group looks just as good, if not better than the 2024 lineup that conquered Omaha last summer.

South Carolina not up to snuff as Clemson sweeps Palmetto Series

South Carolina’s 9-0 start to the season was met with some pushback, as the Gamecocks hadn’t looked particularly impressive against lesser competition. Paul Mainieri’s club had a chance to silence some of the early-season doubters with a big weekend against Clemson.

While the Gamecocks hung tough for almost the entire series and had multiple impressive pitching performances, the bats were not up to snuff. Clemson held USC to six runs in a three-game sweep and have now swept the Palmetto Series in three of the last four years.

“I can sit up here and tell you how badly I feel for South Carolina people that care so much about what happens against Clemson. I feel awful,” Mainieri told reporters after an 8-2 loss in Columbia on Sunday. “It matters to me, believe me, as much as it matters to anybody else.”

South Carolina mustered just five hits in each game. It hit .121 (4-33) with runners on base and .142 (4-28) with two outs. Center fielder Nathan Hall, first baseman Ethan Petry and catcher Talmadge LeCroy were the only Gamecocks to manage multiple hits in the series. USC struck out 36 times and walked just nine times.

Aside from a late-inning collapse in Sunday’s loss, the pitching was a bright spot. Left-hander Matthew Becker allowed four earned runs in his Friday-night start at Clemson, but sophomore right-hander Brandon Stone was excellent in relief, striking out six and allowing just one run on three hits in four-and-two-thirds. Lefty Jake McCoy fanned a career-high 12 batters on Saturday in Greenville, allowing just two earned on three hits in six innings. He still took a loss as the Tigers cruised to a 5-1 win. Usual Friday starter Dylan Eskew was pushed back to Sunday as he recovered from a minor back strain. He too allowed just one run in six innings.

The disappointing weekend leaves many feeling vindicated about their South Carolina takes as it failed its first real test of the year. Luckily for Mainieri and his staff, though, many more tests will soon come hot and heavy once conference play gets underway.

“We’re not going to give up,” Mainieri said. “I can just assure everybody we’re not going to give up. We’re going to keep working.”

Final early-season tournaments yield mixed results

-The final weekend of the College Baseball Series in Arlington featured Auburn. The Tigers came away with one of the most impressive weekends around the league, picking up wins over Ohio State, Oregon State and Baylor. Right-hander Samuel Dutton threw six shutout innings on Friday in a 13-0 rout of the Buckeyes. Freshman righty Christian Chatterton struck out nine across five innings of one-run ball in a 7-4 win over Baylor. The Auburn lineup delivered from top to bottom. Star freshman Chris Rembert drove in four runs in a mega 8-7 win over ranked Oregon State on Saturday. DH Chase Fralick had seven hits on the weekend. Auburn (11-1) has now won 10 games in a row, its longest streak since 2019. It cracked the D1Baseball Top 25 this week, checking in at No. 22.

-LSU was the headlining participant in the Frisco Classic and the Tigers delivered some excitement in each of its three wins over Kansas State, Nebraska and Sam Houston State. Second baseman Daniel Dickinson had six crucial RBIs in a 10-inning 8-5 win over Kansas State on Friday. A six-run seventh inning led to an 11-6 win over the Huskers, while an early bombarding of Sam Houston pitching resulted in a 12-8 victory. The Tigers (11-1) look like one of the best defensive teams in the SEC early on. Star freshman Derek Curiel is now slashing .432/.576/.614 after a five-hit weekend. The Tigers take over the top spot in the nation following A&M’s abysmal week.

-The Astros Foundation College Classic also included Mississippi State, which left with an eye-gouging 1-2 weekend, losing to Arizona and Oklahoma State. The Bulldogs are making a habit of finding ways to beat themselves, digging early holes that prove too tough to climb out of. A 6-5 loss to Arizona and 9-7 loss to OK State both saw MSU spot their opponents four and five-run leads early on. Now 7-4, MSU will look for its first midweek win as it tries to find its identity with conference play approaching.

-Texas put together an under-the-radar 3-0 weekend at the Las Vegas Classic, defeating Washington, Texas Tech and Illinois. Longhorns pitching allowed 20 runs, but the bats tallied 35. Right fielder Max Belyeu (.477), second baseman Ethan Mendoza (.424) and third baseman Adrian Rodriguez (.395) are all mashing at the dish early on. Texas (9-1) has now won nine in a row after losing its season-opener to Louisville.

-Vanderbilt’s second trip out west didn’t end the same as the first. After defeating UCLA 8-3 on Friday, the Commodores dropped games to USC and UConn to leave the Southern California Classic with a 1-2 record. Vandy scored just three total runs in the pair of losses. To this point, its season has been a mixed bag on the hitting and pitching front. The Dores (9-3) have now scored five runs or less in six games already. They’ve also allowed five or less nine times through 12 games.

Updated Top 25 features 12 SEC teams

Monday’s updated D1Baseball Top 25 now features a dozen SEC programs, including four of the top five. Auburn and Alabama both entered, while Mississippi State dropped out.

No. 1 LSU (+1)
No. 2 Tennessee (+1)
No. 3 Arkansas (+1)
No. 5 Georgia (+1)
No. 7 Florida (+1)
No. 12 Texas (+3)
No. 13 Oklahoma (+3)
No. 14 Texas A&M (-13)
No. 17 Ole Miss (+7)
No. 18 Vanderbilt (-4)
No. 22 Auburn (NR)
No. 23 Alabama (NR)