Alabama is playing for a championship on Saturday! The Crimson Tide defeated the Kentucky Wildcats 6-3 on Friday night to earn a berth in the SEC Tournament Title Game. The win assures them a shot at their sixth softball tourney title, as they’ll face off with the Florida Gators in College Station on Saturday night. ‘Bama put up a big ol’ six spot in the 2nd inning to help lift them to victory. KB Sides’ three-RBI double was the biggest of blows, as she cleared the bases with her deft hit to left center. Other runs had been tacked on via a walk by Claire Jenkins, a single by Caroline Hardy and Merris Schroder, who reached on a fielder’s choice. Kentucky had to scrape back, but the game was not without controversy. A pitch dealt to Abbey Cheek was called a strike and resulted in a strikeout of the SEC Player of the Year. The pitch, though, looked to be even with the other batters box, which of course would lead it to being a ball. The call by the ump didn’t change, however, and UK was forced to deal with that bind the rest of the way. They piled on three runs along the way in three of the next four innings, but were ultimately taken down by ‘Bama. The runs were driven in by Jenny Schaper, who hit a single up the middle, and Mallory Peyton who hit a sac fly. Lauren Johnson was also responsible for a run, as she plated one on a single that also went up the middle.<doc-sep>With the most competitive league in the nation, the Southeastern Conference will have ten ranked teams participating in the Tournament held this week May 8-11 in College Station. If you are anywhere near a casino, don’t bet on these games. They could all go any which way. 4. Alabama 50-6 9. Florida 40-15 10. LSU 40-15 11. Tennessee 39-13 13. Georgia 39-16 17. Ole Miss 36-16 19. Arkansas 38-17 20. South Carolina 36-16 23. Kentucky 32-21 24. Auburn 35-18 NR Missouri 32-22 NR Mississippi State 32-20 NR Texas A&M 28-24 (Vanderbilt does not field a softball team so they can win bowling championships against schools you’ve never heard of.) DAY 1 SCHEDULE Mississippi State and host team Texas A&M kick it off Wednesday morning for the rights to move on to a game later in the evening against 5-seed Ole Miss. Arkansas versus Georgia should be the best game of the day. Both teams are coming off a home sweeps of ranked SEC foes. The winner gets to face the No. 1 seeded Crimson Tide. 12 Mississippi St 3 , 13 Texas A&M 2 - The host team is the first eliminated. , 13 - The host team is the first eliminated. 11 South Carolina vs 6 Florida 12:30 CT - Tornado delays. That is SO Texas. vs 6 12:30 CT - Tornado delays. That is SO Texas. 10 Auburn vs 7 Missouri 3:00 CT SEC vs 7 3:00 CT SEC 9 Arkansas vs 8 Georgia 5:30 CT SEC vs 8 5:30 CT SEC 5 Ole Miss vs MSU 8:00 CT DAY 2 SCHEDULE Alabama, Tennessee, LSU, and Kentucky are your top four seeds. They all were rewarded with Day 1 byes and will not begin play until Thursday. 3 LSU vs SC -Florida winner 11:00 am CT vs winner 2 Tennessee vs Auburn- Mizz winner 1:30 CT Thurs vs winner Thurs 1 Alabama vs UGA- Ark winner 4:00 CT 8:28pm CT Thurs vs winner 8:28pm CT Thurs 4 Kentucky vs OM- MSU winner 6:30 CT will play Friday All games will be televised on SEC Network. The semifinals and final will be aired on ESPN2. Check SEC Network+ later in the week for online airings in your area. All Alabama games can be heard on Radio: 93.3 FM. UPDATED BRACKET Thanks to inclement weather, games have been pushed back. Alabama will now play UGA at 8pm CT.<doc-sep>Skylar Wallace had game-winning, walkoff home run For seven innings of Alabama softball in the Southeastern Conference Tournament Thursday night, it was exasperating. After one swing in the bottom of the eighth from Crimson Tide freshman Skylar Wallace, it was exhilarating. In what has been a rain-delayed and upset-noted SEC Tournament at Texas A&M, No. 1 seed Alabama had to overcome a lack of offensive punch through key situations before Wallace delivered a long home run on a 3-2 count to lead off the bottom of the eighth inning and give Bama a 2-1 win over No. 8 seed Georgia in the quarterfinals round. The quarterfinals will be completed early Friday (weather permitting, and it has not always been permissive in College Station this week) when No. 4 seed Kentucky takes on No. 5 seed Ole Miss at 10 a.m. CDT. Alabama will face the winner of that game at 6 p.m. Friday in the semifinals. The Tide is expected to pitch SEC Pitcher of the Year Sarah Cornell. Already in the semifinals are Florida, a 3-0 upset winner over No. 3 seed LSU, and Auburn, the first No. 10 seed ever to reach the semifinals in 23 years of SEC Tournament play. The Tigers have advanced with a 3-0 win over Missouri and a 2-0 win over No. 2 seed Tennessee. Alabama, ranked fourth in the nation, improved its record to 51-6. No. 17 Georgia is now 40-17. Prior to Thursday night’s game, the Tide received its trophy as SEC regular season champion. Wallace’s game-winning home run came against a stiff breeze that had been blowing in from the outfield all evening. It was her sixth homer of the season. “She is one of those kids who comes through in the clutch,” Alabama Coach Patrick Murphy said of Wallace’s game-winning home run. Almost overlooked in the heroics provided by Wallace’s bomb well over the fence in right-center was the job by another freshman, in fact the SEC Freshman of the Year. Montana Fouts pitched the complete game win, giving up only four hits and the lone run. Fouts struck out nine batters and walked only three as she improved to 15-3. “Fouts did a great job for us,” Murphy said. “I was really worried with how many people we were leaving on base. It was a bunch when I looked down on the stat sheet; it was a way too many. We said at the bottom of the eighth, the first team that really executes well is going to win the game, and we need to do that. So, Skylar took care of the rest, and Montana was very, very good in the circle.” Alabama’s offense was otherwise blah. The Tide left 13 runners on base, including leaving the bases loaded in three innings. Bama did not have a base hit with a runner in scoring position. Alabama managed only six hits in the game – two each by Wallace and Maddie Morgan and one each by Kaylee Tow and Merris Schroder. Wallace, a Georgia native, had both runs batted in. In the fourth inning the Tide evened the score at 1-1 without benefit of a base hit. Alabama loaded the bases with Claire Jenkins leading off with one of her three walks and scoring when Wallace drew the bases-loaded base on balls. Georgia had taken a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth on back-to-back doubles by Alyssia DiCarlo and Alysen Febrey. Georgia’s only other threat came in the top of the eighth. After Fouts got the first two outs on just two pitches, DiCarlo and Febrey got back-to-back singles. Fouts then ended the threat with her ninth strikeout. Fouts, who was able to overcome three illegal pitch calls against her, stranded six Georgia runners. Kylie Bass (12-4), who had pitched the Bulldogs into the quarterfinals with a complete game win over Ole Miss earlier in the day, took the loss as the third Georgia pitcher. The win was Alabama's third walk-off victory of the season, two of which have come against Georgia.<doc-sep>
The Florida Gators are the 2019 SEC Softball Tournament Champions! The 6th-seeded Gators completed their run on Saturday night with a 2-1 victory over the top-seeded Alabama Crimson Tide. The victory gave Florida their second consecutive SEC Tournament Championship and their fifth in program history. Florida pulled off the championship game victory thanks in large part to two of their best players. Those players being Amanda Lorenz and Kelly Barnhill. Down 1-0 in the 6th inning, Lorenz battled and battled some more until she got a hold of a two-RBI double that gave the Gators a lead they wouldn’t soon relinquish. Lorenz has been one of the best Gator softball players in recent memory, and Saturday night was another shining example of her greatness. Barnhill might not have been her ace-like self, but the Gator great was still stout in the circle. She pitched a complete game two-hitter with only the one earned run coming off a fielder’s choice in the 4th. Barnhill struck out six batters but did issue six walks as well. Still, she and her teammates battled and Alabama just couldn’t capitalize when they needed to to do damage to her. The victory for Florida assures them of a spot in the NCAA Softball Tournament. Their resume is pretty dang good as it is, but it’s still crazy that this team, who was 12-12 in conference play, just went on this run to win it all. Then again, this team has plenty of veteran leadership and great players all around, so is it that crazy at all? Perhaps not. As for ‘Bama, no need to hang their heads. While they certainly came up short in the final tourney game, they’ll likely be hosting in the NCAA Softball Tournament, probably all the way through the Super Regionals, after their stellar year.