BASEBALL: Update on Georgia center fielder

It was a scary moment last night when Georgia sophomore Matt Cerione hit the wall after making a catch on a really hard hit by Matt Smith, the best swing Smith had last night.

The wall is padded, but Cerione, a sophomore from Alpharetta, Ga., collided head-on with a beam behind the padding.

He laid motionless on the ground for what seemed like several minutes until he was finally helped to his feet by training staff. You could tell how groggy he was.

Cerione has been diagnosed with a mild concussion. He is with the team at the stadium right now but is not in the starting lineup for the Bulldogs’ elimination game against Alabama which will start not too long from now.

He will be available to play later in the tournament.

A .276 hitter with six home runs, he was 0-for-2 with two strikeouts last night.

– PA

BASEBALL: Pomeranz vs. Paxton tonight

Ole Miss will throw freshman left-hander Drew Pomeranz against Kentucky in tonight’s late game which will start any time between 8 p.m. and midnight.

Pomeranz is 4-3 but has not won since an April 19 decision at South Carolina. He’s given up at least six runs in three of his last four starts, the exception beging at Georgia on May 3 when he went 6 1-3 innings with five hits, four runs and five walks.

Last Friday at Kentucky Pomeranz went 3 1-3 innings and gave up seven hits, six runs, five earned, two walks and struck out five in a game the Rebels lost 9-0.

Kentucky will start right-hander James Paxton. He’s 4-2 with a 2.57 ERA. He just blanked the Rebels in that same 9-0 game. He gave up seven hits, struck out six and did not walk a batter.

– PA

BASEBALL: SEC Tourney update

What’s great about hotel rooms is that you can make them really dark, and therefore when you get back from the ballpark at midnight you won’t be awakaned by sunlight creeping in the next morning.

I got up and started stirring about 8:30.

I suspect many Kentucky players are not stirring yet. The Wildcats defefated Alabama 9-3 last night, excuse me, this morning. The game started at 10:50 p.m. and was completed at almost 2 a.m. That’s what the 10 a.m. start time for game 1 gets you.

The Rebels and Wildcats have a scheduled start time for 8 p.m., but that’s a joke. Many games aren’t complete in three hours, and there’s a mandated 45 minutes between games.

At present, I don’t know who Kentucky is planning to pitch. UK coach John Cohen threw a reliever last night, Aaron Lovett, and I was at the stadium long enough to see Alabama rack him with four stright hits in the first, but he settled down and threw a complete game. It was his first career start.

No word on who Ole Miss will throw either, which is interesting. Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco continues to strongly support freshman Drew Pomeranz, but Pomeranz has gotten hit around pretty good in three of his last four starts. Bianco named only a Game 1 starter before the tournament began and was non-committal when asked who would start Game 2.

– PA

FOOTBALL: Corinth’s Lee commits

Defensive end Markell Lee, a 6-5, 250-pound prospect from Corinth, has given a verbal commitment to Ole Miss. Lee was a first-team Class 3A all-state selection as a junior.

– PA

BASEBALL: SEC Game 1 blog

The starting lineups are lining along the basepaths, and Mike Bianco’s name has been mis-pronounced. Rebels and Georgia are about to begin.

Follow along in the comments section.

– PA

BASEBALL: Finally, it’s over

Vanderbilt held on to beat Florida 7-3. Now the “5:00″ game will begin at about 6:45. The announced times for these games has always been a joke. Why sit around two hours waiting to start a four-game day at 10 a.m.? Play ball at 8.

– PA

BASEBALL: SEC Notes

Session 1 attendance is 6,027. … Vanderbilt leads Florida 6-3 with 2 outs in the bottom of the sixth.

– PA

BASEBALL: Settled in at Regions Park

Getting logged on here at Regions Park. There are some nice additions to the stadium that were complete last year, specifically this second level to the press box around home plate. The tournament had really outgrown the stadium before this box.

There was talk about a new scoreboard, but it looks like they did that on the cheap with a bit of an “upgrade” for the old board. There are cleaner looking graphics in the center, but the same design of ads encircling the board. There is some graphics capability, but no color graphics and no video board for replay.

The No. 7 seed South Carolina threatended No. 2 seed LSU in the opener before LSU rallied to win 5-4. 6 seed Vanderbilt is leading 3 seed Florida 4-1 right now. We’ll see what happens for 8 seed Ole Miss and 1 seed Georgia in a few hours.

This game is only in the bottom of the third, so I don’t imagine the Rebels will be starting at 5.

– PA

FYI: Today’s agenda

Just got lunches made, and after I drop off at elementary and middle school I’ll be on the road to Birmingham. Hopefully I’ll be able to check in early and make it over to Full Moon bar-b-cue before going out to Regions Park. It’s so much easier to say “Regions Park” than “the Met.” None of the locals know “the Met,” and I always felt I had to explain it by saying Metropolitan Stadium, which is long and cumbersome.

I’m hoping I can make it out to Barnes and Noble and spend some birthday money before going to the game. A good spy novel is an SEC baseball tournament tradition with me, because a lot of the time we have two teams going, and both of us are out at the stadium virtually all day.

Before I get on the road I have to swing by the office and pick up a box of cigars that one of our local subscribers wanted me to get to Ron Polk last weekend, but we didn’t connect in time. I figure Polk or an MSU representative will be around the tournament this week.

I’ll have the in-game blog going for Ole Miss-Georgia. First pitch is 5 p.m.

– PA

BASEBALL: 4 Rebels make All-SEC

Lance Lynn and Scott Bittle make the second team, Brett Basham makes the inaugural all-defensive team, and Drew Pomeranz makes the all-freshman team. Georgia’s Joshua Fields is the first-team relief pit I know what Josh Fields’ numbers are, and they are impressive. Pitching for the overall champs carries some weight to help get you on first team as well. Fields is good, but I can’t imagine anyone more dominant or versatile than Scott Bittle has been this year.

– PA