SEC Baseball Tournament 2024: Friday Schedule and Bracket Predictions | News, Scores, Highlights, St

The SEC baseball tournament field will be trimmed from six teams to four on Friday.

Only two elimination games will take place inside Hoover Metropolitan Stadium to set up Saturday's semifinals.

The Kentucky Wildcats and South Carolina Gamecocks face off in Friday's opening game. A rematch for either team against the LSU Tigers awaits the winner of that contest.

The top-seeded Tennessee Volunteers square off with the Mississippi State Bulldogs in the second contest. The victor of that contest gets another shot at the Vanderbilt Commodores.

Friday SEC Tournament Schedule

No. 10 South Carolina vs. No. 3 Kentucky (4 p.m. ET, SEC Network)

No. 5 Mississippi State vs. No. 1 Tennessee (7:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network)

Kentucky and Tennessee come into Friday with distinct advantages in the pitching matchups.

The pair of top-four seeds have only played two games in Hoover and they have more available arms to choose from.

South Carolina and Mississippi State are each on their fourth game in four days. They both might use patchwork pitching plans to get through Friday.

South Carolina used five pitchers in its 11-10 loss to LSU on Thursday night and it faces a quicker turnaround to 4 p.m. ET for its matchup with Kentucky.

The Gamecocks won the regular-season series with the Wildcats, but that was in a normally structured weekend.

Kentucky has had one reliever throw three or more innings in a single appearance in Hoover. That should help set up its pitching structure for the elimination game battle with South Carolina.

Although Kentucky lost the season series to South Carolina, it put up 15 runs in the game that it won on April 27. A similar performance at the plate is possible if the Gamecocks trot out some tired arms.

South Carolina scored 10 runs in two of its three SEC tournament games, so the opener in Hoover might be set for a ton of offensive fireworks.

The same can't be said about the second game since Mississippi State has been involved in three games with eight runs or fewer in Hoover.

The Bulldogs will likely go with an all-hands-on-deck pitching approach after they got at least five innings out of their three starters in the first three games.

Playing four games in four days is never an ideal situation, but Mississippi State is at least in a better spot than South Carolina to mix and match its arms because of how well the starters pitched.

The Bulldogs are going to need some standout performances on the mound to slow down Tennessee's offense.

The Volunteers scored 11 runs across two games in Hoover and they scored at least seven runs in four of their last six contests.

Tennessee's talent at the plate could shine through and take advantage of a Mississippi State team without its top starting arms available.

Friday's two winners move on to the semifinal round, where the tournament reverts back to single elimination. The two semifinal victors meet in Sunday's championship game.

Predictions

Kentucky over South Carolina

Tennessee over Mississippi State

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