Number Seven: 2005 SEC Baseball Tournament

The 2005 SEC Baseball tournament will appear at number seven on the biggest sports news/memories of the last four years. Going into the tournament the Ole Miss baseball team was seeded number four in the SEC and was ranked high nationally. Ole Miss and LSU were tied for the SEC Western Division Championship, but LSU had won the series against the Rebels so the Tigers were given the number two seed in the tournament. Ole Miss as the number 4 seed drew number 5 seeded in state host Alabama.

I had been to many SEC Basketball tournaments in my life, but this was my first ever trip to the SEC Baseball tournament. To be honest, this was the first time in my life that this many Ole Miss fans were excited about Ole Miss baseball. I made the trip to Birmingham and planned to stay as long as the Rebels were playing. Many Rebel fans were there that first day and the crowd of Rebels grew as the weekend went on, especially Sunday. I got the privilege of sitting next to SwayzeCrazy(the throw it in the dirt guy) on opening night. He is full of excitement and is a great guy to sit next to during the game, he is full of knowledge.

The Rebels had a great tournament. They started out on Wednesday against Alabama. The Rebels got up early on the Tide and were up 3-0 going into the ninth inning. A late Bama rally in the ninth scored a run and left two runners on to end the game in scoring position, but Stephen Head prevailed and closed out the game on the mound for the Rebels in strong fashion as he always did. On Thursday, the Rebels were forced to play number 1 seed Florida, it was a high scoring game and the Gators won it 10-7.

In this double elimination tournament the Tide and Rebels were forced to play again. It was another close game, with the game being tied going into the eighth. A Brian Pettway shot to dead center scored two to solidify another victory over the Tide and sent many fans in Birmingham home. The bad thing many thought, was that the Rebels were going to have to play the number 1 seed Florida again, and defeat them twice in one day.

With this fact being known, I thought there was no way we could do this and went to relax at a lake outside from Birmingham. Boy, was this a mistake. The Rebels turned it on on Saturday behind some excellent pitching of Anthony Cups, Stoney Stone, and Tommy Bumgardner. The Rebels miraculous defeated the Gators 14-1 in a game called in seven innings due to the mercy rule. They then came back an hour later and defeated the Gators 4-2. The matchup was now set, it was the two Mississippi schools in the SEC Championship game.

Highway's 82 and 78 were reportedly packed as Rebel and Bulldog fans made their way to the Hoover Met to watch their teams play in the SEC Championship game. It was the third largest championship game in attendance in the history of the tournament. Unfortunately the Bulldogs won the matchup as the Rebels could never really get base runners in scoring position. Brooks Dunn took the mound for the Bulldogs, and pitched a pretty good game. The final score was 4-1, Dogs.

Overall it was a great tournament for the Rebels. After losing to Florida on Thursday if you would have told me they would make the finals, I would have never believed you. I believe it was one of the few if not only times the Rebels have made it to the finals, and it was the first time the Rebels and Dogs had ever met in the finals. The 2006 SEC tournament is just two weeks away, I plan on being their again this year. I hope the Rebels can play like they did last year, because we definitely need them to.