I think it is host choice. I like getting that 1vs 4 game done and resting up while 2 vs 3 game is played.....and given the time of year you generally will avoid any possible weather delay that may impact the late game. That 2nd game could get pushed to late that night or even the next morning...all the while you are resting up hopefully with a W tucked away
Unlike basketball tourney I guess.. I think its random per year, per sport..on conf tourneys. What ever committe feels that day..Or if need it as excuse. I think Ok St losing early to BYU helped too Last years SEC #3 didnt host , so aTm should be happy...Agreed on Bama,, basically same resume as team they lost to to end year. No business hosting
Possibly, but I'm thinking ESPN/SECN might have something to do with it since our game is the very first game televised and it's on the SEC Network.
South Alabama beat South Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi State this year. They have a great pitcher, Sr. Olivia Lackey, 23-8 with a 1.42 ERA, 226.2 IP, 212 K's, 52 BB and only a .175 BA against. She can shut down anybody on a given day and has done it vs. some really good teams this year. They don;t have a very good offense, team BA of only .249 with only 29 home runs, but Lackey will be a challenge if we have to face her.
yep shes legit.. AU didnt play USA this year, but she beat them 2-1 last year(much better AU offense, Bri Ellis etc),, only hit/run she allowed was in 7th.
^^^^ but they finished 5 games better than bama.in sec, and still had a better kpi/rpi. Guess that didn't matter.tho. but as I said, no biggie. .
Not saying she's not a great pitcher, but Alabama and South Carolina are probably the two worst offenses in the SEC. Auburn is close in batting average but they hit a few more homeruns. And Lackey didn't even pitch the bulk of the Mississippi State game they won. There's no guarantees (look what happened against USF), but I think this was about as good of a draw as we could have hoped for. South Alabama was closer to a 3-seed according to RPI than a 2-seed.
I agree with you about our draw. I think it was very favorable. Just have to keep playing like we have the last 10 games and we'll be in OKC.
Yes, but we almost always pick the 2nd game, and I don't believe we've ever played at noon in a regional opener at home. So both aspects are rather unique to FLORIDA Softball. The only time in the last 10 years we picked to be the first game was USF in 2021; we destroyed them 1-0. Weather issues are few and far between for softball regionals, that usually picks up later in May and early June. And rest has never been an issue with many evening Friday games for regionals; whenever we've won the first game (as early as 2PM, as late as 7:30 PM), we've always won the Saturday game to stay in the winner's bracket. There has been a shift since the last national championship as the regional start times have been much earlier (2016/2017/2019 all had noon starts). Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
So you are saying I need to worry about South Alabama in addition to FAU? I'm gonna go back and undo my "Best Post Ever!"
South Alabama is the #2 seed, they have better quality wins than FAU and have a slightly higher RPI. Plus they have the pitcher with the best stats in our regional. But we still have a very favorable draw, IMO. We have to be challeneged a little bit, right?!
The way UF is hitting this year in general, and right now in particular, I don't think they really care much about any pitcher's stats.
If the Gators & Louisiana meet in the Super-regionals, Lexie and Sam are going to meet a whole bunch of new Gators. There are only seven players on this team that played for the Gators last year.
So do we go back to alternating Rothrock / Brown or, given the back-to-back-to back games she pitched at SEC Tournament, do we start Rothrock every game?
Obviously Rothrock starts game 1.... and I really just think it depends on how the games go if we get a big lead we take her out if not she gets the ball. Ava came in against UGA and did fine but she got some good rest this week.
