Georgia softball enters the SEC Tournament as no. 2 seed

ATLANTA, GA - DECEMBER 07: (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA - DECEMBER 07: (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
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The no. 6 Georgia softball team secured the no. 2 seed in the SEC Tournament with a 16-8 conference record. The Dawgs have a bye in the first round.

Georgia softball can check one item off their 2018 to-do list. The Bulldogs, with their no. 2 seed in the SEC Tournament, will take Wednesday night off. They will watch the game between no. 7 seed Arkansas and no. 10 seed Kentucky.

The next goal on that list is to win the SEC Tournament and then host a Region in the NCAA Tournament. To achieve that, they must win their next three games. There are no series’ in the tournament.

Georgia plays the winner of the Arkansas versus Kentucky game Thursday at 2:30 p.m. The Bulldogs opened SEC play by sweeping Arkansas. They run-ruled the Razorbacks in game one 8-0, defeated them 1-0 in extra innings in game two, and squeaked out a 5-4 win in game three. Three weeks ago they took two out of three games from Kentucky with every game decided by two runs or less. So Georgia should feel confident with one game against either club.

If they get past the second round, their semifinal game is Friday at 2:00 p.m. South Carolina is the other high seed on their side of the bracket at no. 3. The Gamecocks await the result of Wednesday’s match-up of no. 6 Texas A&M and no. 11 Mississippi State.

Georgia skipped South Carolina or Texas A&M this year. The Gamecocks finished one game behind Georgia in the SEC standings with a 15-9 record. The Aggies finished 13-11 in SEC play. Georgia won two of their three games with Mississippi State all three games came down to just one or two runs.

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The bottom half of the bracket includes:

No. 1 Florida

No. 4 Tennessee

No. 5 LSU

No. 8 Alabama

no. 9 Auburn

no. 12 Ole Miss

Georgia didn’t play LSU or Auburn this season, but they had a lot of success with three of those six teams. They defeated Florida in two of their three games from back in March. Georgia took game one with a walk-off home run and they squashed the Gators 11-1 in game two. Later that month, they bounced back from a game one loss to Tennessee by run-ruling the Volunteers twice by the combined score of 17-1.

Last weekend, Georgia defeated Alabama twice, but they lost game three to miss out on the sweep. They ended the regular season this past weekend with a disappointing series with Ole Miss. But they managed to win 5-1 on Sunday to gain some momentum heading into the tournament.

Next: Georgia needs to make Atlanta their second home

Missouri hosts the SEC Tournament this year. Which makes the Tigers last place finish even more disappointing since they aren’t playing in the tournament they’re hosting. The SEC Network is televising all first and second round games. ESPNU has the semifinals and ESPN2 has the Championship Game which is Saturday at 7:00 p.m.