No. 3 Gator Softball Sets Sights On 2011 SEC Tournament Championship
Thursday, May 12, 2011 | Softball
2011 SEC Softball Player of the Year Kelsey Bruder (Corona, Calif.) and Co-Coach of the Year Tim Walton will lead the Gators as they embark on this season's SEC Softball Tournament Thursday at the Ole Miss Softball Complex in Oxford. After claiming the school's fifth SEC Eastern Division title – its fourth straight – with a sweep over Tennessee last weekend, Florida will be working towards its fourth SEC Championship in program history, having claimed the regular-season title in 1998, as well as the tournament and regular-season titles in both 2008 and 2009.
As the No. 2 seed in this year's, Florida will face the No. 7 seed, Auburn, in the first round of the single-elimination bracket Thursday at 2:30 p.m. (ET). The game will be broadcast live by ESPNU. Should Florida advance, it would play the winner of the Tennessee (No. 3 seed)/Kentucky (No. 6 seed) match up on May 13 at 3 p.m. (ET) in the semifinals on ESPNU. Gator fans unable to catch UF's tournament games on television can tune in to live audio on 105 'The Game' locally, with the call by Adam Schick and Kristina Hilberth, or tune in on XM and Sirius radio. Cara Capuano and Jessica Mendoza will be on the call for ESPNU Thursday. Live stats and updates will be available at Ole Miss' SEC Softball Tournament Central, while statistics, a recap and all game tracker links will be available on www.GatorZone.com/softball for each game.
The Gators are making their 15th consecutive SEC tournament appearance, having been each year of softball's existence in the league. The Orange and Blue are 17-21 all-time in the SEC Tournament and went 1-1 in the tournament last season, including a 9-1 victory over Auburn in the first round, before being eliminated by LSU in a 9-1 loss in the semifinals. The Gators and Tigers additionally met in the first round of the 2009 SEC Tournament, where UF defeated AU, 3-0.
Florida will face a tough match-up in Auburn, the fourth time this year the two teams will meet, after the Gators swept the Tigers in Auburn exactly a month ago April 15-17. Florida is 27-14 all-time against Auburn, 3-2 on neutral ground. UF had arguably its best offensive output of the season, putting up a season-high 16 hits, while clocking a school-record eight homers in the Sunday series finale. Florida defeated the Tigers 14-4 and 8-2 in a doubleheader due to a storm delay and 13-4 in the series finale.
CHECKING IN WITH AUBURN: No. 23 Auburn notched its second consecutive series victory over a ranked SEC team taking two of three games at No. 18 Kentucky over the weekend ... Auburn's series win over UK gave the Tigers their first winning season in SEC play (15-13) since 2005 ... Junior pitcher Angel Bunner earned the win in both games for Auburn and has now won her last three straight appearances vs. ranked SEC teams ... Bunner has held opponents to one earned run or less in five of last six appearances vs. ranked SEC teams … Allowed just three hits with one run (earned) on the road vs. a Kentucky team that is top-five in SEC in hitting, home runs, runs scored and on-base percentage … In game one vs. UK, Bunner entered with one out in fourth inning after UK had scored three runs to take 3-2 lead and promptly retired nine consecutive batters and 11 of the first 12 batters faced as AU rallied for 5-3 win in eight innings … In game three, entered with 2-0 lead with one out in fourth and fought off a pair of UK scoring threats, stranding the bases loaded in the fifth and the tying run at second in the seventh ... Sophomore Kelsey Cartwright led AU with a .375 BA in three games against Kentucky, while senior Kyndall White and freshman Morgan Estell each hit .300 for the series ... The Tigers will face No. 4 Florida in the first round of the SEC Tournament, marking the third consecutive year the Tigers and Gators have met in the first day of the tournament ... Auburn is making its fourth consecutive SEC Tournament and its 11th in the last 12 years.
GATOR NOTABLES: Freshman pitcher Hannah Rogers ranks third in the country in wins (30)… Collectively, UF's offense is first in the country in homers per game, second in slugging percentage, fourth in the NCAA in scoring… Junior Michelle Moultrie (Jacksonville, Fla.) continues her quiet dominance – she's had at least one hit in 49 of 55 games this season… Moultrie has dropped 22 bunts, 16 of which have been for base hits… Florida also uses the long ball, having scored 196 of its 418 runs off 104 homers, shy of the school-record 109 so far in 2011… Florida had a nation-leading five athletes selected to Capitol One Academic All-District 3 First Team, qualifying them for the All-America ballot… A league-leading seven Gators captured All-SEC honors this season… Moultrie, senior Megan Bush (Anaheim Hills, Calif.) and sophomore Brittany Schutte (Fountain Valley, Calif.) will all attend the USA Softball Women's National Team Selection Camp this summer… Bush is a Top 10 Finalist for USA Softball's Player of the Year, while she was also named to the SEC Community Service Team… Senior Stephanie Brombacher (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) is a top 10 finalist for the 2011 Lowe's Senior CLASS Award.
2011 SEC Softball Tournament Bracket
Thursday, May 12
Game 1: #3 Tennessee vs. #6 Kentucky (ESPNU) 11:00 a.m.
Game 2: #2 Florida vs. #7 Auburn (ESPNU) 1:30 p.m.
Game 3: #4 LSU vs. #5 Georgia (ESPNU) 4:00 p.m.
Game 4: #1 Alabama vs. #8 Mississippi State (ESPN2) 6:30 p.m.
Friday, May 13 (Semifinals)
Game 5: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner (ESPNU) 2:00 p.m.
Game 6: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner (ESPNU) 4:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 14
Championship Game (ESPN) 7:00 p.m.
ALL TIMES ARE CENTRAL
