Tuesday's tournament roundup

One piece of future information before looking back:

SEC
* Moments after Mississippi State completed its 5-4, 10-inning victory over Georgia in the SEC Tournament Tuesday night, South Carolina announced junior left-hander Jordan Montgomery would be the starting pitcher for the Gamecocks' tournament opener against Mississippi State Wednesday night.

Montgomery (7-4, 3.26 ERA) has been the Gamecocks No. 1 (Friday) starter all season. He'll be starting on one day's less rest than usual for the second straight week. The final SEC regular-season series started on Thursday last week.

Mississippi State coach John Cohen didn't declare a starter, but suggested it could be junior righty Trevor Fitts (4-3,  2.59, 62 2/3 IP, 65 H, 24 R, 18 ER, 10 BB, 55 K, .261 OBA).

South Carolina also hasn't announced the status of injured players Max Schrock and Connor Bright. Schrock played last Thursday at Vanderbilt. Bright hasn't played in a month. Coach Chad Holbrook could choose to rest them more if it improves their chances of being available for the NCAA Tournament.

Now, back to Tuesday's games as they impacted S.C. schools

BIG SOUTH
* Winthrop and Coastal Carolina won their openers while Charleston Southern lost (to Winthrop) to fall into the losers bracket in Rock Hill.

Sam Kmiec pitched a five-hit complete-game shutout for the host Eagles, who were limited to six hits themselves. T.J. Olesczuk had the big hit, a two-run homer in the third inning.

Tyler Herb allowed five hits and two runs over eight innings and Connor Owings had three hits as sixth-seeded Coastal upended No. 3 Campbell, 9-2.

Winthrop and Coastal Carolina play today, while Charleston Southern must beat Campbell to stay alive.

SOUTHERN CONFERENE
* Both Furman and The Citadel survived the single-elimination round to move into the main portion of the bracket.

The Paladins built a 4-0 lead after two innings, gave up the tying run in the ninth and go-ahead run in the 11th before scoring two unearned runs in the bottom of the inning for a 6-5 victory over UNC Greensboro.  Six Paladins had at least two hits apiece and Elliott Warford and Brant Masters combined for 4 2/3 innings of shutout relief. The Paladins' reward is getting regular-season champion Western Carolina today.

The Citadel bounced back from a 6-1 deficit and pulled away to a 10-7 victory over Elon. Skylar Hunter pitched the final three innings to get his 15th save. That may keep Hunter from being available Wednesday, but if the Bulldogs hadn't used him Tuesday there might not have been a Wednesday.

Calvin Orth had three hits and drove in three runs as the Bulldogs earned a Wednesday date with Davidson.

Wofford, which had a first-round bye, opens against Samford.

ACC
* Georgia Tech's 5-3 victory over Wake Forest filled out Clemson's dance card for pool play in the tournament. The Tigers will play the Yellow Jackets on Friday.

First up for Clemson, though, is Duke today. The various national projections I've seen are split about 50-50 as to whether the Tigers will get an NCAA Tournament bid. A good ACC Tournament performance may be needed to sway any fence-sitters on the selection committee.

CAA
* The Colonial Athletic Association Tournament begins today, but College of Charleston gets another day's rest because it has a first-round bye. The Cougars will face the winner of today's UNC Wilmington/James Madison game.