COLLEGE BASEBALL/SOFTBALL: Bama, Auburn ready for SEC Tourney; Tide reaches Supers; ASU top seed in SWAC

By GRAHAM DUNN

Alabama and Auburn will open the SEC Baseball Tournament on Tuesday with the Crimson Tide facing Kentucky and the Tigers taking on Missouri.

The Tide (38-17) is the No. 9 seed and winners of five straight and seven of their last eight games. They finished the season with a winning conference record (16-14) for the first time since 2014.

Auburn finished the regular season on an eight-game winning streak, sweeping both Ole Miss and Missouri to finish with a 17-13 conference record and earned the No. 5 seed in the SEC Tourney.

Both teams are expected to receive an NCAA bid with an outside shot at being a host of an NCAA Regional. The announcement of NCAA Tournament bids is scheduled for Memorial Day, May 28.

The SEC Tournament begins Tuesday at the Hoover Met. No. 6 seed South Carolina faces No. 11 Georgia in the opener at 9:30 a.m. followed by No. 7 Tennessee and No. 10 Texas A&M.Alabama and ninth-seed Kentucky are scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. followed by Auburn and No. 12 seed Missouri.

Florida is the top seed in the tournament followed by No. 2 Arkansas, No. 3 LSU and No. 4 Vanderbilt. Click here for the tournament bracket.

The first round is single elimination followed by double elimination until the one-game championship scheduled for Sunday at 2 p.m. Games will be televised on the SEC Network and the championship on ESPN 2.

Alabama games can be heard on WTLS 106.9 FM and 94.7 FM (click for link).

Tide softball makes record 18th Super Regional

No. 5 seed Alabama (43-19) will once again host Super Regionals beginning Friday, facing off against No. 12 seed Northwestern.

Game 1 is slated for 7 p.m. and will be televised on ESPNU. (click for brackets)

This marks the 18th time the Tide has advanced to the Super Regional round since the current postseason format was adopted in 2005 and will be the 13th time Alabama has served as a host, winning 11 of the previous 12 Super Regional rounds in Tuscaloosa.

Needing to win two games to advance out of the region, Middle Tennessee (42-20) took Sunday’s first game against the Crimson Tide, 4-1, to force a deciding seventh game. The final game was a scoreless pitcher’s duel until the top of the seventh, when Shipman led off the inning with a line-drive home run to left field. Jaala Torrence (9-2) and the Tide defense shut the door in the bottom half, allowing a two-out single before a groundout capped the complete-game shutout.

On the weekend, Torrence went 3-0 over 18.2 shutout innings, striking out 17 with just three walks. Shipman’s home run Sunday was her second of the weekend, going 4-for-10 (.400) with three runs scored and four RBIs in Regional play.

Bama State the top seed in the SWAC baseball tourney

Alabama State finished with a record-breaking 39-win season and will open the Southwestern Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament against Prairie View A&M on Wednesday at 2 p.m. CDT at Georgia Tech's Russ Chandler Stadium in Atlanta.

Alabama State (26-4 SWAC) enters the tournament as the No. 1 seed from the Eastern Division and with the best overall record.

Bethune-Cookman claimed the Eastern Division No. 2 seed (20-9 SWAC), while Florida A&M claimed the No. 3 seed (18-12) followed by No. 4 seed Jackson State (13-17)

Grambling State (22-7) enters the tournament as the No. 1 seed from the Western Division.

Texas Southern claimed the Western Division No. 2 seed (17-10), while Southern claimed the No. 3 seed (17-10 SWAC) followed by No. 4 seed Prairie View A&M (15-14).

The tournament will be played in a double-elimination format with action set to start on Wednesday with games slated to run through Sunday. (Click for bracket)

All tournament games scheduled for May 24-27 will be available live on the SWAC Digital Network.