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The 2024 SEC tournament continued Thursday, as teams looked to keep their hopes of a conference title and tournament berth alive.
Tennessee, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt and Mississippi State were all playing for spots in the semifinals, while Kentucky, Arkansas, South Carolina and LSU were hoping to keep their dreams alive.
Here is a look at how each of the four games played out.
May 23 SEC Tournament Schedule
No. 3 Kentucky 9, No. 5 Arkansas 6
No. 1 Tennessee 7, No. 4 Texas A&M 4
No. 11 LSU 11, No. 10 South Carolina 10
No. 8 Vanderbilt 4, No. 4 Mississippi State 3
No. 8 Vanderbilt 4, No. 4 Mississippi State 3
It apparently doesn't matter what Vanderbilt does in the regular season because all the team does is win in the SEC tournament.
The Commodores are now 3-0 in this year's tournament after holding on for a 4-3 victory against Mississippi State.
Vandy jumped out to a 3-0 lead after five innings thanks to Davis Diaz's two-run single in the third and JD Rogers' run on a wild pitch in the fifth.
Calvin Hewett extended the lead to 4-1 with an RBI single in the top of the seventh. JD Thompson was fantastic on the mound, allowing one run with eight strikeouts in six innings for Vanderbilt.
The Bulldogs made things interesting with two runs off Ryan Ginther in the bottom of the ninth. He was able to escape the jam by getting Logan Kohler to groundout to second.
The win sends Vanderbilt to the semifinals on Saturday. It will take on the winner of Friday's game between Tennessee and Mississippi State.
Vanderbilt is two wins away from becoming the first team to win back-to-back SEC tournament titles since LSU in 2013 and 2014.
No. 3 Kentucky 9, No. 5 Arkansas 6
Ryan Waldschmidt hit two home runs and drove in three runs to lead Kentucky to a 9-6 victory over Arkansas.
The Wildcats came into Thursday with a 22-inning scoreless drought in the SEC Tournament and wasted no time breaking that streak, scoring two runs in the first inning off Arkansas ace Hagen Smith.
The Razorbacks pulled Smith after just two innings in favor of Gage Wood, and he did not fare any better. Wood gave up homers to Ryan Nicholson in the fourth and to Waldschmidt in the fifth as part of a three-run inning.
Kentucky starter Trey Pooser went five scoreless innings, allowing three hits and striking out three. Arkansas attempted to respond with a four-run sixth inning after Pooser was pulled, but it was to no avail.
Kentucky extended its lead one more time with a three-run seventh, as Waldschmidt hit a two-run homer and Mitchell Daly knocked in a sacrifice fly.
No. 1 Tennessee 7, No. 4 Texas A&M 4
Texas A&M got on the board first and last, but it was not enough.
Kavares Tears drove in four runs and Christian Moore had three hits, pushing Tennessee to a 7-4 win over Texas A&M.
Chris Stamos, AJ Causey and Kirby Connell combined to give up nine hits over their nine innings of work. Causey struck out seven batters over 4.1 innings of work but was responsible for two of the four runs.
Gavin Grahovac went yard twice for Texas A&M in the losing effort. Ryan Prager and Brock Peery gave up a combined two runs over 3.2 innings of work, but the floodgates opened Tanner Jones and Josh Stewart entered the game.
The Texas A&M defense also did not help matters, committing three errors.
No. 11 LSU 11, No. 10 South Carolina 10
There was no shortage of offense as LSU topped South Carolina.
The Gameco*cks took a comfortable 5-1 lead after a five-run third inning, but the Tigers quickly responded with a four-run inning in the fourth to even things up. South Carolina used another big offensive inning in the sixth to go up 10-7, leaving LSU with plenty of work to do in the late stages of the game.
The Tigers cut into the deficit in the eighth before taking the lead in the top of the ninth thanks to a sac fly from Alex Milazzo followed by an RBI single from Michael Braswell.
After LSU took the lead, it held strong on defense to keep South Carolina from answering.
The Gameco*cks will now face Kentucky on Friday while the Tigers will await the winner of that matchup on Saturday.
