2017 SEC Softball Tournament semifinals: Results, scores, updates, recaps

Ole Miss 4, Alabama 1

by Christopher Novak

The Ole Miss Rebels kept their stellar run going with a 4-1 victory over Alabama. The win brings the Rebels to the SEC Softball Tournament final, where they’ll look to grab their first tourney title in program history.

The Rebels got it going in the second inning, plating three runs across to take a decisive lead in the game. Miranda Strother drove in two with a single and she would go on to score following an error later in the game. A home run by Dakota Matiko - the first of the season for her - later put an insurance run on the board in the fifth inning.

They would come to need those insurance runs as ‘Bama would threaten in the last two innings. A run would be scored following a Bailey Hemphill single, but Kaitlin Lee would not be denied. She worked her way out of trouble not once, but twice in back-to-back innings as the tying run came up to the plate in each frame. Lee stood her ground, to her credit, and only allowed the one run to pass.

Ole Miss becomes the highest seed (8) to ever partake in the SEC Softball Tournament Final with the win. They’ll face either LSU or Auburn, who will play each other at approximately 2 p.m. ET.

LSU 6, Auburn 0

by Robert O’Neill

For the first time since 2007, the LSU Tigers are heading to the SEC Tournament final. The Tigers picked up a 6-0 victory over Auburn in the second semifinal of the afternoon in Knoxville.

LSU was led by a five-run fifth inning in which Auburn committed four errors. All five LSU runs in the inning were unearned.

In the circle for LSU, Allie Walljasper delivered 5.1 shutout innings before Carley Hoover made her first appearance since late April to close out the game. Hoover, who had been dealing with a knee injury, struck out two and walked one in her 1.2 innings of work.

LSU will face Ole Miss in Saturday evening’s Championship on ESPN.