Weekend Look Ahead: SEC East Title On The Line In Softball
Friday, May 6, 2011 | General
The SEC East title is on the line in Softball this weekend as Tennessee comes to town, while baseball travels to Arkansas, women's golf competes in the NCAA East Regional and lacrosse takes aim at the ALC tourney title in Nashville in the weekend look ahead.
Softball
While the SEC overall title may be at stake depending on what West-leading Alabama does this weekend, the East title will certainly be at state when Florida hosts Tennessee for a three-game set starting Friday at 4:30 p.m. The No. 3/5 Vols enter with a 20-5 record in SEC play while the No. 4/6 Gators own an 18-7 mark and would need a sweep to take to the East.
The Gators have been on fire and have won 14 of their last 15 games and 11 of their last 12 games in SEC play.
Friday's tilt will be on SUN Sports while Saturday's game will air on ESPN and noon and Sunday's on ESPNU at 3 p.m. Following this weekend's action, the Gators will head to the SEC Tournament in Oxford, Miss., from May 12-14 with their seeding to be determined this weekend.
Baseball
The Gators opened a three-game series with Arkansas last night with a close 4-3 loss, as Jarrod McKinney of Arkansas broke a 3-3 tie with a solo homer in the bottom of the eighth to provide the difference, handing Hudson Randall just his second loss of the season (8-2).
Sophomore left-hander Brian Johnson (7-1, 2.26) and Razorback southpaw Randall Fant (1-3, 2.92) will tangle tonight in the middle game of the series. Johnson has a team-high 57 strikeouts over 63.2 innings and has limited opponents to a .219 batting average. In his last outing, the lefty fired 6.2 scoreless innings and matched his career high of nine strikeouts to help UF clinch the series over the Rebels.
Freshman righty Karsten Whitson (6-0, 2.03) will draw the start in the finale against an Arkansas pitcher to be announced. Whitson has notched 56 K in 58 innings in his debut campaign and is 3-0 with a 1.91 ERA in league action. He allowed three hits and had four strikeouts in six shutout frames last Sunday to complete the sweep of Ole Miss.
Friday night's game will be broadcast on GatorVision at 7:35 p.m., while ESPNU will broadcast the finale on Saturday at 8 p.m.
Golf
The women's golf team is in Daytona Beach to compete in the NCAA East Regional this weekend. The Gators started play on Thursday with a +10 team score that put them in ninth place and right in contention for a spot in the NCAA Championship field later this month.
Florida resumes play on Friday morning and play concludes on Saturday.
Lacrosse
Lacrosse travels to the Music City for the ALC Tournament with their first game on Friday at 3 p.m. vs. Ohio State. The Gators are the top seed in the event and looking to win the tourney crown in just their second year of existence.
The Gators face Ohio State who opened with a win over host-Vanderbilt on Thursday afternoon. Should the Gators win that match, they would play for the championship on Saturday against the winner of No. 2-seed Northwestern vs. third-seeded Penn State.
