What's Going on Offensively in the SEC is Truly Frightening

Numbers being put up in college baseball's best conference are enough to make most teams lose hope

Arkansas Communications

FRISCO, Texas – When baseball practice resumes on college campuses across the SEC this week, there's a good bet the pitching coaches will have the attention of their players more than usual.

That's because of the wake-up call to reality when it comes to facing SEC hitters. 

The SEC truly is the best of the best when it comes to the sport. When the next set of conference games kick off this coming weekend, the conference will most likely have eight teams with 20 wins or more. That's with only two weekends of SEC baseball in the books. 

To put that in perspective, there were 13 teams with 32 or fewer wins last season in the regionals last season, including eventual national champion Ole Miss. South Carolina already has 23 wins with eight weekends, several mid-week games and the SEC Tournament left to play.

It's not a secret that a good chunk of the best pitching in all of college baseball is taking place in the SEC even with so many top pitchers on the shelf.

However, what is happening with batting line-ups across the SEC footprint is terrifying. There were 21 games played in the SEC over the weekend and eight featured teams scoring double digit runs while Vanderbilt and Georgia put up more runs than their footballs teams had at times last season.

Vanderbilt 26, Mississippi State 3

Tennessee 10, Texas A&M 4

LSU 12, Arkansas 2

Vanderbilt 18, Mississippi State 5

Georgia 24, Auburn 7

Florida 12, Ole Miss 8

LSU 14, Arkansas 5

Vanderbilt 11, Mississippi St. 7

Five more games featured the winning team with nine runs, meaning that if the team that lost wanted to win, it would have needed double-digit runs. That concludes that nearly two our of every three games, the losing team needed double digits in run production to put a mark on the positive side of the SEC standings.

It's what No. 25 Missouri would have needed as the Tigers watched a 3-run lead with two outs in the ninth fade away to a 9-8 loss in the South Carolina version of Columbia.

Those who didn't watch probably assume wind played a factor in these games. 

It may have at some venues. However, in the series between No. 1 LSU and No. 5 Arkansas, it can be said with certainty that wind didn't play a factor in the 13 home runs given up between the two clubs. 

Hurricanes could have been blowing in from the gulf and it wouldn't have kept most of those pitches in the ballpark. The violence with which the balls were struck in those games was awe-inspiring. 

In 25 years of covering college and professional baseball, I have never heard the sounds that came off the bats during some of those home runs down in Baton Rouge. 

If a pitching coach is still struggling to get his pitchers to hear him out today, he need only stop down for a few minutes to put the highlights from that series on the screen.

Throwing hard and having good movement is more than enough in these mid-week games. But when it comes to the weekend, it's going to be about location, location, location. 

A mistake by even half an inch to the Arkansas Mountain Monster Jared Wegner or the Bayou Basher Dylan Crews is going to put teams down in a hurry. The two combined for seven home runs last calendar week.

Getting through a series without giving up a home run to those two will be almost impossible because the line-up surrounding them is so powerful and on-point that they can't be pitched around every at-bat.

There will be no room for the pitcher who gets rattled if he gives up a home run. No one gets on the mound in this league going forward if he doesn't have the mentality to get angry and strike out the next guy up instead of deflating when a ball leaves the yard.

With so many teams posting such gaudy numbers on the score board and in the win column it will be difficult to predict how this year is going to shake out. However, best bet is the team with the pitching staff that develops pin-point accuracy. 

That's the only way to stop the beasts of the SEC.

HOGS FEED:

HOGS' SAM PITTMAN CAN FINALLY GET BACK ON FIELD FOR SPRING PRACTICE ON TUESDAY

RAZORBACKS END SEASON WITH NIT LOSS AGAINST A VERY GOOD KANSAS TEAM ON SUNDAY

GAME 3 BLOG AS NO. 1 LSU, NO. 5 ARKANSAS LOCK UP IN RUBBER GAME

WHAT HAPPENED IN RAZORBACKS' FIRST GAME AGAINST LSU ON SATURDAY AFTERNOON

WHAT DAVE VAN HORN HAS DONE UNDER CIRCUMSTANCES HAS BEEN NOTHING SHORT OF MAGIC

ARKANSAS OBLITERATED BY UCONN AS RAZORBACK CAREERS COME TO AN END

THIS IS WHY CASINOS DON'T LET KIDS GAMBLE ON THE NCAA TOURNAMENT

RAZORBACKS' SHOWDOWN WITH NO. 1 LSU GETS RESCHEDULED

NCAA TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE, TV LISTINGS FOR THE SWEET 16

MAYBE ALABAMA COACHES NEED TO BE A LITTLE MORE LIKE RAZORBACK COACHES

MIKE ANDERSON HAS LEGITIMATE ARGUMENT TO MAKE WITH ST. JOHN'S OVER FIRING "FOR CAUSE"

NCAA TOURNAMENT ROUND: SEC EDITION

DAVE VAN HORN GETS WIN NO. 1,400 HEADING INTO SHOWDOWN WITH NO. 1 LSU

SABAN PROVES ARKANSAS HAS SOMETHING ALABAMA DOESN'T IN LATEST PRESS CONFERENCE

NATIONAL CELEBRITY HELPS ARKANSAS SOCIAL MEDIA STAR TO LAS VEGAS FOR SWEET 16

RAZORBACKS ADVANCE TO SUPER 16 WITH BIG WIN OVER STEPHEN F. AUSTIN ON MONDAY NIGHT

STATE OF ARKANSAS CRIED ALONG WITH DEVO DAVIS AFTER WIN OVER KANSAS

SANOGO ISN'T BIGGEST THREAT HOGS FACE IN SWEET 16 AGAINST UCONN

WATCH: HOGS' FORWARD KAMANI JOHNSON PREVIEWING THURSDAY MATCHUP WITH UCONN IN SWEET 16

WEGNER'S RECORD SETTING HOME RUN COMPLETES SWEEP OF AUBURN

YOU DIDN'T THINK IT WOULD GET EASIER FOR RAZORBACKS DID YOU?

NCAA TOURNAMENT BRACKET

ARKANSAS BASEBALL SCHEDULE

FAYETTEVILLE WEATHER UPDATE

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