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Paul Mainieri (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)
In a season brimming by upheaval and unpredictability at the top of the rankings, Thursday night delivered more chaos–a fitting start to the final weekend of the regular season.
No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Auburn dropped their series openers in stunning fashion, marking just the second time all year that the top two teams in the Baseball America Top 25 lost on the same day to open a weekend. Both instances have come in the past three weeks, a stretch that’s already seen three different programs take turns atop the poll.
South Carolina delivered the bigger jolt. The Gamecocks, languishing near the bottom of the SEC standings, rallied late to walk off No. 1 LSU, 6-5, in Columbia. The Tigers coughed up five runs from the sixth inning on, including two in the ninth that sealed their fate. The winning run scored on a wild pitch by Zac Cowan, LSU’s usually rock-steady closer, who entered the game as one of the most reliable relievers in the country.
LSU, now 40-13 and 17-11 in SEC play, remains in strong national seed contention.
Auburn’s loss was more lopsided and could have wider implications on the hosting scene. No. 22 Ole Miss beat the Tigers 9-2 in Oxford, dealing them their worst defeat by run difference since mid-April against Texas.
Ole Miss, which entered the weekend on the outside of the hosting picture looking in, got the start it needed to build a much stronger case for postseason games in Oxford.
Whether Thursday’s upsets result in yet another shakeup at No. 1 remains to be seen. This year has already featured six different teams in the top spot—Texas A&M, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, Georgia and LSU—all from the SEC, marks the first time since 2021 that a single conference produced every No. 1 team in a season with at least three different leaders.
With just two days remaining in the regular season, the drama at the top shows no sign of slowing down.
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