College Baseball Conference Tournament Recap: SEC and Sun Belt

How’s the saying go? I’ll sleep when I’m dead? Because I wanted to continue not sleeping, I packed my schedule even more and headed out to Montgomery, AL, for the Sun Belt. The Sun Belt has always been a sneaky good baseball conference.

Two top 15 teams were in action in the #14 Southern Miss Golden Eagles and #11 Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. The Troy Trojans played Southern Miss in game one, and they’ve flirted with our top 25 all season long. 

On top of that, three major MLB Draft prospects were in action: Troy catcher Brooks Bryan, Coastal Carolina catcher Caden Bodine, and right-hander Jacob Morrison. 

We also followed the SEC conference semifinals. You had an in-state rivalry matchup between Vanderbilt and Tennessee, and a red-hot Ole Miss taking on LSU.

Let’s dive into all the action! 

Sun Belt Conference 

#14 Southern Miss comes out on top in a marquee Sun Belt battle with Troy

Given the pitching matchups and early scoring, it felt like it might be a massive offensive game. Chase Nelson took the bump for the Trojans and only had 10 innings on the year. Grayden Harris went for the Golden Eagles, and he’s been a more consistent starter. 

Troy started scoring at the top of the first thanks to a Sean Darnell double down the right field line. Southern Miss responded quickly and took advantage of a missed play off the bat of Joey Urban in the bottom of the first that scored two. It wasn’t an error, but Gavin Schrader took a bad route. 

After that, it was quiet. Both teams failed to capitalize on opportunities a lot. For instance, Troy had two on with no outs and a bases-loaded one out in the top of the third and failed to score. They had nine batters left on base after the sixth. 

But man, the main story was Chase Nelson. For a guy who had only thrown 10 innings on the year, he looked like an ace against the highly ranked Golden Eagles. He went six and two-thirds innings, giving up just four hits, two earned runs, one walk, and striking out six. 

This is a kid who is coming off two Tommy John surgeries—just incredible stuff. 

It was just an exciting back-and-forth between the pitching staffs that carried through the game. Jay Dill was an electric factory out of the pen for Troy, and Colby Allen was for Southern Miss. Both were throwing fuel in the mid-90s. 

Allen finished off the last two innings for the Golden Eagles. He went two innings, gave up just one hit, and struck out four. The only hit came in the top of the 9th as Troy clung onto life, but Allen was able to finish the job, getting Brooks Bryan to strike out and Sean Darnell to pop out.

Southern Miss moves on to the championship against Coastal on Sunday.

As for Troy, they are a bubble team for the tournament. Head Coach Skylar Meade talked about how he felt this team should be in the tourney despite not making it to the Sun Belt Championship. “If we aren’t in the tournament, I don’t know who is,” Coach Meade said.

To his credit, I don’t think he’s wrong. We’ll know Troy’s destiny on Monday. 

#11 Coastal Carolina showcased why they were the Sun Belt regular-season champs 

What a strong performance against Marshall for Coastal to punch their ticket to the Sun Belt Conference Championship. It was extremely fun to watch this offense and pitching staff work. 

Coastal’s ace and 2025 Sun Belt Pitcher of the Year, Jacob Morrison, toed the rubber for the Chanticleers and was absolutely dominant even though he didn’t have his best stuff.

Morrison pitched seven strong innings for Coastal. He tiptoed around some trouble initially, but after talking to his pitching coach, he made some adjustments and continued to dominate the Marshall bats. 

He explained what helped get him back on track. “Just listening to my coaches when I get back to the dugout every time,” Morrison said. “Coach Williams usually has something for me and then I go back out there and really focus on that go back to it.”

Behind Morrison’s stellar outing, the Coastal offense came to play. Blake Barthol started scoring early as he launched a two-run home run at the bottom of the first—a blast over the right-field wall.

Barthol hit a sac fly in the bottom of the third to give Coastal a 3-1 lead. The Chants went on to score three more to give their bullpen a solid 6-1 lead.

Coastal heads to the Sun Belt Championship, where they’ll take on #14 Southern Miss for what should make an epic battle, especially with a potential hosting opportunity on the line for Southern Miss. Head Coach Kevin Schnall isn’t worried about his guys being ready, regardless of the opponent.

“This team here likes to play, so it doesn’t matter really. I mean, we want to play and we want to competem” Coach Schnall said. “And every time we show up, we’re competing to win. We’re not here just to have fun.” 

SEC Semifinals 

An in-state battle between Tennessee and Vanderbilt highlighted game one

Vanderbilt… wow. I mentioned this earlier in the year, but I didn’t know what to make of this Vanderbilt team. It’s a team that doesn’t do many extraordinary things but consistently does the right things and finds ways to win. It was much of the same against Tennessee in this semi-final matchup. 

Freshman Tegan Kuhns toed the rubber for Tennessee, and Cody Bowker took the mound for Vanderbilt—an intriguing matchup. 

Vanderbilt started the scoring early when Riley Nelson singled to right field, scoring Rustan Rigdon. But they really started to pile it on in the bottom of the second. This team just peppers the crap out of the baseball. 

Three singles by Jacob Humphrey, Mike Mancini, and Rustan Rigdon led to four more runs for the Commodores. It’s crazy how easy this team gets bat to ball. As we’ve said before, it’s a far cry from your power-hitting thumper Vanderbilt teams of the past, but man it still works and is fun to watch. 

Vandy didn’t let up in the bottom of the third either, scoring two more thanks to an error and a couple of wild pitches, making it 7-0. Unfortunately, that had been Tennessee’s kryptonite all season long—the defense. 

The big story for Vandy was Cody Bowker, who dominated for four innings while giving up three hits, two walks, and nine strikeouts. He stepped up when Vandy needed him. Connor Fennell followed him and was also lights out for two innings. 

That got us to the bottom of the sixth when it was a singles party AGAIN for Vanderbilt. Mike Mancini, RJ Austin, and Riley Nelson combined with singles to make it 10-0. 

Ultimately, this one ended in a 10-run rule. Vanderbilt has had a dominant showing in this SEC tournament thus far. I genuinely think this is more of a story about how we overlooked Vandy all year long than about Vandy getting hot. This team is fun. This team is good.

Head Coach Tim Corbin spoke after the game about what has led to this team’s finding its stride and achieving better results.

“Just finding themselves. I think sometimes teams take a while to find their identity, and as I was saying the other day, there’s no magic pill or magic dust to any of this,” Corbin said. “I think they’ve had a good focus of just getting better, and really, that’s what it’s been from the middle of the year.”

They head to the championship game on Sunday, where they will take on Ole Miss to see if they can capture SEC tournament glory. 

Ole Miss stuns LSU and is heading to the SEC championship game

What a run for the Ole Miss Running Rebels. What Coach Mike Bianco and this team has done as of late has been more than impressive. It’s not shocking coming from one of the best coaches in the entire country and the kids on this team.

We have to start by talking about true freshmen. Cade Townsend. He came out and shoved for a kid who has struggled throughout the year. Townsend went 4.2 innings, giving up just two hits while allowing no runs and striking out three. Coach Bianco was elated with his performance.

“ For Cade Townsend to pitch four and two-thirds against a very, very good offense in this environment, which is different than a lot of places, and especially conference tournaments. It was loud there today, so for Cade to perform like that, his best outing of the year. We tried to prime him for that, a lot of mid-week starts, but nothing like that today. So for him to perform like that…just proud of our guys.”

Then the Ole Miss bullpen followed. Have a day, boys. Gunnar Dennis, Will McCausland, and Connor Spencer had a combined deafest, going 4.1 innings of their own, giving up ZERO hits and striking out five. It’s crazy Ole Miss held this lineup to two hits, including two singles from the bottom of the lineup. 

What’s even crazier is that LSU held Ole Miss in check for the most part as well. The only scoring came when Will Furniss went big fly, and Will Smithwick singled to right to drive in Isaac Humphrey. 

Jaden Noot started and dominated for four innings, giving up one earned run (two total) while striking out seven. Chase Shores was an electric factory out of the bullpen, bumping hundos all night and getting one up to 102 MPH! He struck out three in 2.2 innings. 

Besides the bats not showing up, Jay Johnson still feels confident in his team and he of course has no reason to be concerned at all. 

“The main goal is the NCAA Tournament, but I feel really good about the three guys that threw today, obviously felt good about what we accomplished with the two pitchers last night,” Johnson said. “We had one error in two games, which was a pick-off move. Offensively, no secret, we’ll work at being better, and I expect us to be better next Friday.”

LSU is likely locked as a top-three team in the country and will be hosting a regional next week, where it will look to make another run at the national championship.

2025 MLB Draft Updates

C Brooks Bryan – Troy (#69 on the Top 200)

Stats: 0-for-4, BB, 2 K

Not the best game for Troy catcher Brooks Bryan. Bryan struggled to pick up a spin in this one and looked like his timing was off. He’s physically in the batter’s box and usually does an incredible job handling velocity. He has often held the Whiffs in check, but breaking pitches were his kryptonite today. He’s likely a top 100 draft prospect when all is said and done in July. 

RHP Jacob Morrison – Coastal Carolina (NR on the Top 200)

Stats: 7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K

Man, what an outing for Jacob Morrison. He ran into a bit of trouble initially, giving up a double which eventually led to a run, but he settled in after that and cruised. Completed a full seven innings, giving up just five hits and one earned run, all under 100 pitches. The fastball was 92-94 MPH in the first three innings and then sat comfortably at 91-93 in the later innings. The slider had really good late bite two with two-plane action. The curveball and change had some good depth. He’s an absolute bulldog on the mound, too. This is a fun arm, and he’ll easily be on our next draft board update. 

C Caden Bodine – Coastal Carolina (#32 on the Top 200)

Stats: 1-for-3, BB

While Bodine didn’t do much at the plate, it was pretty easy to see why he’s among the top draft prospects for the 2025 MLB Draft. He got one single in this one but hit the ball pretty hard and consistently made contact. He’s one of the best pure hitters in the game. What he was really impressive in this game was behind the dish. He’s a brick wall back there and showed off elite block sills and cat-like reflexes. Bodine is your guy if you want a prospect who will be a quick riser through the minors.