Thursday, May 1, 2008
The second ranked University of Florida softball team tries to win an outright SEC title this weekend when it finishes its regular season with a three game series at Tennessee.
Certainly, Florida (56-2, 24-1 SEC) will almost certainly host a regional and hopefull a super regional because of what it has done in a truly amazing season. However, in the short term, Florida wants to win an SEC title but will have to contend with a Tennessee team (46-10, 14-9 SEC) that also will be appearing in the postseason.
The team Florida is battling with for the SEC title is Alabama. The Crimson Tide (47-4, 23-2 SEC) will end its season with a series against Georgia in Athens.
The SEC Tournament will start next weekend, kicking off the postseason for eight schools that will qualify for the tournament.
Meanwhile, the Florida baseball team (27-16, 12-9 SEC) will go on the road for an important SEC series at South Carolina (31-14, 11-10 SEC) that starts on Friday.
The Gators will make a change in the starting rotation, inserting freshman Tommy Toledo into the Friday night slot, replacing Billy Bullock, who has struggled in his last couple of starts. Toledo was pulled from the rotation a few weeks ago after some ineffective starts as the Sunday starter.
Lefthander Stephen Locke will start on Saturday and undefeated Patrick Keating will get the start on Sunday for Florida.
South Carolina was swept at LSU in its last SEC series but the Gamecocks are tough at home, going 22-6 this year. The team hits .303 and is lead by veteran Justin Smoak, who is hitting near .400 with 18 homers on the year. Veteran hitters Phil Disher, Reese Havens, and James Darnell add a lot of pop to the lineup as well.
The Carolina pitching has been suspect of late; Mike Cisco will get the start on Friday (5-2, 5.08 ERA) but he is a guy that has had some success in pitching against the Gators. Will Atwood (4-2, 4.22) will start Saturday.
There are just three more SEC weekends left and the Gators will play two of them on the road (Carolina, Alabama) and then end the year with a home series against Vanderbilt.