Kentucky Baseball this Week; SEC Standings and more

Kentucky holds the lead in the SEC East with a robust 8-1 record. Vanderbilt and Florida follow at 6-3, Tennessee and South Carolina at 5-4, Georgia at 4-5, and Missouri is mired in last-place at 1-8 with one of the early leaders for completing their season before the SEC Tournament begins.

In the SEC West, Arkansas matches Kentucky's record at 8-1. Texas A&M is 6-3, and everybody else is under the break even mark: Alabama and Mississippi State at 4-5, Ole Miss at 3-6, LSU at a surprising 2-7, and Auburn tied with Missouri for the "let's get this season over with as soon as we can" award at 1-8.

With two road series wins in the first three weekends, Kentucky is off to an outstanding start, especially considering one of them is a sweep. This week we play Louisville tomorrow (Tuesday, 7 PM) at Kentucky Proud Park and stay home to host Alabama this weekend. Louisville is a borderline bubble team this year early, and has not fielded their strongest but you know they will be loaded for bear against us Tuesday. Alabama has been ranked as high as the top 10 (I think – I know I saw them at #11).

Kentucky's remaining SEC schedule (this week is week 1 of the remaining season):
Week 1: Alabama – Kentucky Proud Park
Week 2: Auburn – at Auburn (Tuesday April 9 Kentucky will play in Birmingham against Samford. First pitch is slated for 7:30 PM ET.)
Week 3: Tennessee – Kentucky Proud Park
Week 4: South Carolina – at South Carolina
Week 5: Arkansas – Kentucky Proud Park
Week 6: Florida – at Florida
Week 7: Vanderbilt – Kentucky Proud Park

That week 3-4-5 stretch is absolutely brutal, and 6-7 not much better. Of course, I'm going to hope for better, but my realistic hope has been that we would do well in the first 5 weeks, and then if we could break even in the second 5 weeks, it would be an outstanding season. I still think that. We could even have a losing record in the last 5 weeks, as long as it's close and still be okay.

I am anxious to see how the national baseball polls come out today. Kendall Rogers suggested Kentucky was due for a big jump, and I would expect he is right since he is definitely one of the most influential people in college baseball. I would think Kentucky is going to be in the top 10 as a consensus, but don't think we will touch the top 5. Just a guess. Will post in this thread as the polls are released today. Certainly, if anyone sees the polls earlier, feel free to post away and give us the update.