The SEC Softball Tournament opened Tuesday at John Cropp Stadium in Lexington, Kentucky, with three games. No. 1 seed and defending co-champion Oklahoma, though, makes its tournament debut on Thursday night.
The Sooners (48-7, 20-4) will face the winner of the Wednesday game between No. 8 LSU and No. 9 Georgia in the quarterfinals. Oklahoma, which won the SEC regular-season title for the second straight season, is seeking to become only the third SEC team to capture both the regular-season and conference tournament championship in back-to-back years.
Oklahoma heads into SEC Softball Tournament eyeing conference sweep
Moreover, if the Sooners are successful in pulling off their double championship two-peat, they will have done so in their first two seasons as members of the SEC. Oklahoma was actually co-champion of the SEC Tournament last season, along with Texas A&M, when the championship game between the two teams was canceled because of inclement weather.
With 11 of the 15 SEC teams that participate in softball ranked in this week’s ESPN/USA Softball Top 25 rankings and five of the top six teams nationally in RPI, the SEC Tournament sets up as the most competitive of all of the conference postseason tournaments. Any team in this league is capable of beating another in a single-elimination tournament…