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Arkansas leads SEC baseball power rankings with two weeks to go

 Chris Lee   in Baseball

Arkansas remains on top of the SEC baseball power rankings as the league's title race tightens.

Here's how I rank the Southeastern Conference's 14 baseball teams this week, with each team's overall and conference records and RPI in parenthesis.

1. Arkansas (36-9, 17-7, 1): You know what you're getting here: Razorbacks have won seven series 2-1 and swept Mississippi State.

2. Vanderbilt (34-10, 16-7, 6): Kumar Rocker struggled, Jack Leiter didn't pitch and somehow, Vandy took both games vs. Alabama.

3. Tennessee (37-11, 17-7, 8): The Vols lead the league in runs (168) and run differential (plus-54) in SEC games.

4. Mississippi State (35-11, 16-8): In league play, MSU pitchers lead the league in strikeouts (290) and have struck out the fewest times (180). 

5. Florida (33-14, 15-9, 18): The Gators have won four series in a row.

6. Ole Miss (33-14, 14-10, 11): Oh, to have Gunnar Hoglund and Doug Nikhazy simultaneously healthy...

7. South Carolina (28-17, 12-12, 12): After four straight SEC series wins, the Gamecocks have dropped their last three series. 

8. Georgia (28-18, 11-13, 38): If the "eye test" matters for postseason selection, the Bulldogs--who out-hit Arkansas 29-24 and lost the series by a combined 11-10--were right there with Arkansas all weekend, and on the road at that.

9. Alabama (28-17, 11-12, 29): It's getting tougher to see an NCAA tournament path for the Crimson Tide with Connor Prielipp and Antoine Jean out.

10. LSU (29-18, 9-15, 22): The Tigers have a chance to sneak into the NCAAs, but the bottom half of that order has to start stepping up.

11. Kentucky (27-17, 11-13, 49): Not holding that ninth-inning lead in Saturday's game with Florida may be the thing that breaks the Wildcats' season.

12. Auburn (20-23, 6-18, 65): Don't sleep on the Tigers, who finally got the kind of outing on Saturday from Richard Fitts that they'd hoped for all year.

13. Texas A&M (27-23, 7-17, 62): Aggies invade Auburn this weekend in a series that will go a long way in determining which team goes to Hoover.

14. Missouri (12-32, 5-19, 126): The Tigers (96) have scored 20 fewer runs in the league than 13th-place Carolina, and are tied with A&M with a league-worst 176 runs allowed in league play.