The University of Alabama softball team is gearing up for the 2014 SEC Softball Tournament in Columbia, SC. The Tide clinched the number 1 as well as the SEC Regular Season Championship with their win against Missouri in Columbia, MO last Friday. That number 1 seed earned the ladies a bye for the first round as they await the winner of the Auburn and South Carolina game later today.
Click on bracket to enlarge
We’ll take a short look at both teams and highlight a bit about each of them.
Auburn Tigers: The Tigers have posted a 38-16-1 record for the season thus far and finished up with an 11-13 record in SEC play. The Tigers were pretty dominant at home as shown by their 26-7 record but were 7-8-1 in away games this year. The Tigers faced the Tide once this season for a non conference contest winning 6-2 back during the mid month of April. Four of the Tigers’ hitters are boasting a .300+ average while 3 are above .400. Brandi Melero (.420, .787 SLG%, 15 HR, 75 RBIs), Kasey Cooper ( .416, .779 SLG%, 16 HR, 70 RBIs) and Emily Carosone (.410, .642 SLG%, 7 HR, 30 RBIs) lead the team in the batting categories. Auburn’s cumulative batting average is sitting at .308 and their pitching staff is holding opponents to a .236. The Tigers’ pitching staff current ERA is at 3. 18 while their opponents are at 7.39. Auburn’s Lexi Davis leads the Tigers’ in the circle with an ERA 2.68 on a 19-10 record. Davis has given up 166 hits for the season with 20 HRs and 129 strikeouts. Since March 30, the Tigers have been swept by #6 Florida, #16 Missouri, plus they have dropped a 2-1 series to #15 Georgia. They were swept by #23 ranked Texas A&M in Auburn and dropped one more series to South Carolina.
South Carolina: The Gamecocks finished out the regular season with a 35-19 record while posting an 11-13 record in conference play. South Carolina struggled a bit in home and neutral games but had a great showing at their home stadium in Columbia. The Gamecocks don’t have players with the higher batting averages like Auburn but they are still a formidable opponent. Three ladies currently have a batting average greater than .300. Ashlyn Masters ( .356, .606 SLG%, 5 HRs, 29 RBIs), Sarah Mooney ( .303, .598 SLG%, 11 HRs, 33 RBIs), and Kaylea Snaer( .301, .585 SLG%, 8 HRs and 35 RBIs) lead the Gamecocks in production at the plate. The team is working with a .283 batting average at the end of the season and holding their foes to .252. Julie Sarratt leads the pitchers in the circle for South Carolina with an ERA of 2.69. She’s only given up 13 HRs this season and has recorded strikeouts on 135 batters faced. The Lady Gamecocks have recently taken series wins from #20 Auburn, dropped a series to #24 LSU but also won a series against the Razorbacks of Arkansas in Fayetteville.
Will Auburn’s bats come alive and those three hitters have a productive game or will the Gamecocks and the home field crowd be enough to pull out the win? It’s a winner take all game for the first round (no double elimination) so the Tide will get the winner on Thursday at 5:30 Central time.
In closing, we will take a quick look at Bama and what they will bring into the match up.
The Tide, as we have already said, clinched the number 1 seed as well as the SEC Regular Season title this past weekend. The ladies finished up the 2014 season with a 44-10 record and an impressive record of 23-3 in Tuscaloosa. Bama dropped a few road games this season and posted a 13-6 away record and an 8-1 record at neutral site games. The Tide has 8 hitters that are hitting above an .300 batting average at the end of the season. Leading the way for the Tide are hitters Haylie McCleney (.458, .723 SLG%, 9 HRs, 38 RBIs), Molly Fichtner ( .355, .521 SLG%, 3 HRs, 32 RBIs) and Kallie Case ( .346, .449 SLG%, 2 HRs, 21 RBIs). Kalia Hunt leads the team with 11 HRs. The team as a whole has a batting average of .322 while holding their opponents to .210. In the pitching circle, Jaclyn Traina is back to her old self and doing Traina things. She is currently carrying an ERA of 1.95 with a 19-3 record. She has recorded 154 strikeout this season, only allowed 12 HRs and held opponents to a .200 average. As impressive as Traina has been, freshman Sydney Littlejohn has done her thing in the circle as well. Littlejohn is not giving up much at the plate with her ERA of 1.42 and holding batters she faces to a .183 average at the plate. She has also struck out 58 while compiling a 10-1 record.
All stats from SEC Digital Network
All of the games will be televised on ESPNU with the exception of the SEC Championship game which will move to ESPN2. If I had to pick a winner between Auburn and South Carolina, I think I would have to go with Auburn with their hitters to win that one. However, with these one game match ups, you can never tell what can happen. I do believe Coach Murphy and the girls will be ready and prepared for whichever team makes it through and we should get that 2nd round win and move on to face the winner of Florida and Georgia. No matter way you slice it. The tournaments for the diamond sports are about to get started and it’s one of my favorite times of the year. I just hope I get to see some Crimson dressed ladies “Singing In The Rain’ in Oklahoma City for the Women’s College World Series. You know, I would be happy with “Singing In The Sunshine” as well.