The SEC Softball Tournament gets underway today and the field is absolutely loaded. Six of the top 10 RPI teams in the country belong to the SEC. Even crazier, Ole Miss finished with a 6-18 conference record, landing the 13 seed in the tournament, but has the #22 RPI in the country.
I don’t want to say “It’s different” but I mean, in the words of our editor here at the Cup, “ It’s the SEC mane.”
Ole Miss enjoyed their final weekend of regular season play with back-to-back walk-off wins over #16 Mississippi
State. Even if Ole Miss got swept, they would have ended up with the 13 seed via tie breaker over Auburn. But those two wins go a long way for RPI and post season hopes.
The Rebels will kickoff tournament play with a matchup against the 12 seeded South Carolina Gamecocks at 6:00 tonight. This will be the first time the two teams have matched up this season. USC finished one game ahead of the Rebs but sit three spots behind them in the RPI rankings.
It’s win or go home every round of this tournament, so a win for Ole Miss leads to a second round date with Tennessee. Good news for the Rebs as they took two of three from the Vols in Knoxville earlier this season. UT does sit at eight in the RPI rankings, so it will be a battle regardless of previous results.
No. 4 Texas awaits the winner of the second round game. The Longhorns finished off a two-game sweep, both run-rules, back in mid-March. No. 1 Oklahoma is the likely opponent in round four while Alabama would be looming in the championship game. Ole Miss went 0-6 against those two powerhouses, with three of them being blowouts.
The first three rounds can be found on SEC Network.
Round 1 vs South Carolina – 6:00
Round 2 vs Tennessee – 4:00
Round 3 vs Texas – 4:00
