1996 Southeastern Conference Baseball Tournament

1996 Southeastern Conference Baseball Tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	1996
Teams	8
Format	Play-in round followed by six-team double elimination
Site	Hoover Metropolitan Stadium Hoover, Alabama
Champions	Alabama (3rd title)
Winning coach	Jim Wells (2nd title)
MVP	Joe Caruso (Alabama)
Attendance	57,231[1]
Southeastern Conference Baseball Tournament «1995  1997»

The 1996 Southeastern Conference Baseball Tournament was the 1996 postseason baseball championship of the NCAA Division I Southeastern Conference, held at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in Hoover, Alabama from May 15-19. Alabama defeated Florida in the championship game, earning the conference's automatic bid to the 1996 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament.^[1][2]

Format

Eight teams qualified for the league tournament. The teams seeded fifth through eighth played a single-elimination play-in round. The two winners of the play-in games advanced to the main bracket, which was a six-team, double-elimination format, the same as the NCAA regional format used through 1998.

Regular season results

Eastern Division Team W L Pct GB Seed Florida 20 10 .667 -- 2 Tennessee 18 12 .600 2 4 Kentucky 15 14 .517 4.5 6 Vanderbilt 14 16 .467 6 8 South Carolina 13 17 .433 7 -- Georgia 8 21 .276 12.5 --

Western Division Team W L Pct GB Seed Alabama 20 10 .667 -- 1 LSU 20 10 .667 -- 3 Mississippi State 17 13 .567 3 5 Arkansas 15 15 .500 5 7 Auburn 12 18 .400 8 -- Ole Miss 7 23 .304 13 --

^[3]

Tournament

Play-in games

	Play-In Game
	6	Kentucky	7
	7	Arkansas	5

	Play-In Game
	5	Mississippi State	8
	8	Vanderbilt	5

Main bracket

	1	Alabama	3
	6	Kentucky	2			1	Alabama	3
						4	Tennessee	1
	2	Florida	6								1	Alabama	3
	5	Mississippi State	5								2	Florida	7
						2	Florida	6													2	Florida	5	5
						3	LSU	2													1	Alabama	10	15
	3	LSU	3													1	Alabama	16
	4	Tennessee	1								3	LSU	11			6	Kentucky	8
						6	Kentucky	4			6	Kentucky	12
						5	Mississippi State	1

^[1]

All-tournament team

Position	Player	School
1B	Chuck Hazzard	Alabama
2B	Joe Caruso	Alabama
3B	Travis Hayes	Kentucky
SS	Brad Freeman	Mississippi State
C	Eric Castaldo	Florida
OF	Chad Green	Kentucky
OF	Doug Hall	Alabama
OF	Dustan Mohr	Alabama
DH	Chris Moller	Alabama
P	R.A. Dickey	Tennessee
P	Eddie Yarnall	LSU
MVP	Joe Caruso	Alabama

^[1]

See also

• College World Series
• NCAA Division I Baseball Championship
• Southeastern Conference Baseball Tournament

References

1. "SEC Tournament History". SECDigitalNetwork.com. The Southeastern Conference. pp. 25–31. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
2. "Hoover Wants to Keep SEC Baseball Tourney". The Times Daily. 6 May 1999. p. 4C. Archived from the original on 2012-05-29. The tournament was held at the Met in 1996, ...
3. Nation, Boyd. "College Baseball Conference Standings -- 1996". BoydsWorld.com. Archived from the original on 2012-05-29. Retrieved 29 May 2012.