SEC Baseball Tournament Day 3: Volunteers Roll

It was another great day for baseball Thursday in Hoover, Ala., where the Aggies stayed hot and Tennessee and Vanderbilt punched their tickets to the semifinals Saturday. Here is what you missed from day three of the SEC Tournament at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.

No. 14 Texas A&M and No. 6 Auburn

The fighting Texas Aggies kept their season alive a day longer after defeating Auburn 3-2 on Thursday. This is the second win in a row for A&M, which essentially has to win the SEC Tournament to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament.

The Aggies used a similar formula to its win Wednesday in this one – good pitching and a big home run to put the game out of reach. The top of the third got started with the eight-and-nine- hole hitters getting on, which turned the lineup over for leadoff hitter Kaeden Kent.

On a 2-2 pitch, Kent hit a laser beam over the right field wall for a three-run homer to give A&M a 3-0 lead.

https://twitter.com/SECUnfiltered/status/1925600030804578784

That would be enough because the Aggies’ pitching was good again Thursday. It started with last week’s SEC Pitcher of the Week Justin Lamkin, who was solid again. Lamkin went five innings, allowed one run on three hits, walked three and struck out five. The only run he allowed was a home run in the fifth.

Auburn threatened in the eighth when it had runners at first and second with one out, but an interference call on Eric Guevera sliding into the restricted zone at second base resulted in an inning-ending double play.

Auburn homered in the ninth to cut the lead to one, but could not push the tying run across.

Texas A&M will look to keep its Cinderella run going on Friday when it takes on two-seed LSU at 7:30 p.m. (SEC Network).

No. 8 Tennessee and No. 1 Texas

This battle between two of college baseball’s most premier programs certainly lived up to the billing. Tennessee came out on top of a four-hour and 21-minute instant classic and beat top-seeded Texas 7-5 in 12 innings.

Tennessee fell behind 4-0 early on and did not get the usual outing it does out of ace Liam Doyle, who went 3.2 innings pitched, gave up four runs on six hits, walked two and struck out five.

However, Brandon Arvidson showed up in a big way and kept the Volunteers in it. Arvidson went a career-high 5.1 innings, allowed four hits, one run, walked one and struck out nine.

As Arvidson settled down the Texas offense, the Volunteers started to get going. Back-to-back two-run innings in the fifth and sixth knotted this thing up at 4-4, all while Arvidson was still dealing by working a clean eighth and ninth to give Tennessee a chance in extra innings.

In the 10th, Gavin Kilen belted a pitch over the right-field wall to give Tennessee a 5-4 lead. But the Longhorns tied the ballgame at 5-5 in the bottom half of the inning.

Rylan Galvan led off the inning with a single and advanced to third on a throwing error by Arvidson and eventually came around to score after Kimble Schuessler singled to left.

But in the 12th inning, Texas closer Dylan Volantis allowed the first two men to reach and were bunted over to second and third with one out. With Kilen coming back up to hit, Texas had the option to walk him and load the bases to have a force out at any bag.

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Texas decided to pitch to him, and it backfired, as Kilen lined a two-run double to right center that made it 7-5. The Vols retired the Texas side in order in the bottom half of the 12th to end the game.

Tennessee will face rival Vanderbilt on Saturday at 1 p.m. ET on the SEC Network.

4. Vanderbilt and 12. Oklahoma

It was smooth sailing for four-seed Vanderbilt in defeating the 12-seed Oklahoma Sooners 6-1. Oklahoma was looking for its third straight win in Hoover, but ran into a rested Vanderbilt squad that was able to shut down the Sooners.

Offensively, the Commodores used a four-run third inning to blow this one open before tacking on two more in the fourth and seventh.

RJ Austin was the player of the game at the plate by going 2-for-4 with three RBIs.

The real story was starting pitcher JD Thompson, who was phenomenal. Thompson had everything working on the mound and did a great job at staying efficient.

He finished by going five innings, gave up one run off two hits, walked three and struck out 11.

Vanderbilt lefty JD Thompson is showing his best stuff tonight against Oklahoma. He has 11 strikeouts through five. Sitting low 90s and dropping his curveball and slider in for strikes. Changeup has flashed plus at times. Nasty breaking ball for a called strike on K No. 10 here. pic.twitter.com/ZrhsoOA1OB

— Jacob Rudner (@JacobRudner) May 23, 2025

Note: The NCAA Baseball Tournament regional hosts will be announced Sunday night with the entire postseason field unveiled on Monday’s Selection Show at noon on ESPN2.