With three weeks left in the Southeastern Conference schedule, the regular-season title is still very much up for grabs.
Five different teams are within a game and a half of the conference lead, and a number of those powerhouses will be playing each other as the season enters it’s final stretch.
For Florida, a win in this weekend’s series against Tennessee would give them a serious leg up on the competition.
The No. 4 Gators (34-6, 14-3 SEC) will look to rebound from a mid-week non-conference loss to FIU when they travel to Knoxville to take on the No. 17 Lady Volunteers (38-8, 14-4 SEC) in a weekend series that starts with a doubleheader today at 5 p.m. and concludes with a single game at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
UF currently has a one game lead in the loss column on both Tennessee and No. 5 Alabama, with No. 16 LSU two losses back and No. 12 Georgia three losses out.
However, Alabama currently leads the SEC in wins at 15, while UF and the three other contenders are tied at 14.
Of the five teams vying for a shot at the title, only Florida and Georgia have just one remaining matchup against a top level SEC opponent.
If the Gators can leave Knoxville in first place they will have the luxury of closing out the season with Mississippi State and South Carolina, who are 7-15 and 1-21 in conference respectively, while LSU, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee will all have to survive matchups with each other in the season’s final two weeks.
“I think we’re going to find out exactly where we’re at here in the conference race this week,” coach Tim Walton said.
On the surface, this weekend’s series with Tennessee seems to be a matchup of two strikingly similar teams.
UF and UT are a pair of young teams that are separated by just 16 points in team batting average and .17 in team ERA.
But there two key differences- Florida has a 37 home run advantage on Tennessee, while the Vols have 38 more steals than the Gators.
“Tennessee is one of the top five teams in the country swinging the bat offensively,” Walton said. “They’re a very fast team, very well coached, very hungry team, very young but still a very hungry team so it’ll be a big test.”
