SEC Softball Weekly Wrap-Up: Tennessee motors forward, Auburn makes a move, Florida, Texas A&M; stay consistent

Another busy and exciting week is in the books.

Tennessee flexed their muscles yet again, upping their win streak all the way up to 18 games after a sweep of Alabama over the weekend. The Vols put on a great performance, allowing just three runs in their four games played while scoring 24 for the best run differential of the week (and it wasn’t particularly close either). They’re currently pressuring 1st place Florida, who only has a one game lead over the Vols in the loss column to this point. If the Vols keep winning, this may be something to monitor down the stretch to say the very least.

Tennessee is tied with Texas A&M, who had themselves a successful week as well. The Aggies took their series against Texas A&M two come away with an 11-3 mark in conference play. That loss may sting given that it would’ve tied them with the Gators in the loss column, but they were able to hold steady to their positioning in the standings.

They may’ve gotten tagged with a loss but don’t be less impressed with what Florida did this week. The Gators, still first in the SEC, took it to their opponents. Despite the fact that it took a hit with a 5-1 loss to Kentucky on Saturday, the Gators pitched three shutouts during the week against No. 2 FSU and the aforementioned No. 22 Wildcats. That’s pretty stellar especially when you consider the competition. UF has certainly proved themselves to be one of the top teams in the country, and weeks like this last one are exactly why.

Ole Miss enjoyed themselves a perfect a week, defeating rival Memphis before taking down LSU in a three-game sweep. The Rebels held the Bayou Bengals to just two runs scored in the entire series, pitching two shutouts over the weekend. In fact, they enjoyed a scoreless innings streak of 24 before LSU tagged them for a run on Sunday afternoon, which included the two shutouts of their SEC adversaries and aforementioned rival Memphis. While they didn’t score many runs (just nine throughout the week), wins all count the same and this was a big week for the Rebels who are trying to dig themselves out of the hole they found themselves in before this run they got on.

Thanks to a 2-1 weekend and Alabama’s demise against Tennessee, Auburn was able to hop themselves over the Tide to get into sole possession of fourth place in the SEC. The Tigers, who took the last two games of their series with Mizzou, are now 10-5 in league play and will need a big rally to get up towards where Florida, Texas A&M and Tennessee are but there’s still plenty of time for that to happen. Even so, Auburn is in prime position to get what they want in the SEC Tourney and finishing strong is vital.

One team that certainly helped their cause was Mississippi State, who before the weekend had been hanging out near the bottom with a mark of 4-8 in league play. That record rose to 6-9 after the Bulldogs took two of three from Georgia. State has now gone 5-2 in their last seven games dating back to April 5 as they’ll look to make a late push up the ladder so to speak as the season comes towards its final stretch run.

What’s to Come

Monday night sees the series finale between Tennessee and Alabama as the Volunteers look for their 19th victory in a row. The game is at 7 p.m. ET on SEC Network and is available via WatchESPN.

Tuesday there’s plenty of action to go around as six teams are in action, with Mizzou hosting a doubleheader. All games on Tuesday are of the nonconference variety against lower-tiered programs.

On Wednesday, the action intensifies a bit. Florida tackles UCF, Kentucky faces Indiana, Alabama battles Southern Miss and Texas A&M faces 18th-ranked UL Lafayette as the highlights.

With no games on Thursday, we’ll skip to Friday where plenty of action is abound. Four cross-Top 25 matchups will be going down with the feature bouts being LSU-Tennessee and a nonconference affair between Alabama and Washington. Florida will take on 25th-ranked Ole Miss while Texas A&M faces off with Georgia. Auburn and Kentucky will also be in action, facing South Carolina and Missouri respectively.

On Saturday, Mississippi State and Arkansas get in on the fun as they face off with each other to start their series.