A lizard joins the crowd during the SEC softball tournament at Jane B. Moore Field in Auburn, Ala., on Wednesday. [Jake Crandall/The Montgomery Advertiser]

Florida Softball Advances To SEC Tourney Semifinals Vs. Texas A&M

Florida used three home runs to power past Georgia 9-4 Friday in the quarterfinals of the weather-plagued SEC Softball Tournament in Auburn, Ala.

The two-seeded Gators (44-12) will play in the scheduled 6:30 p.m. semifinal later today at Jane B. Moore Field. The opponent will come from the other quarterfinal scheduled for Thursday night but moved to Friday because of inclement weather, a contest between third seed Texas A&M and 11 seed South Carolina. It will be the Aggies (40-12), who scored twice in the bottom of the seventh to oust the Gamecocks 3-2. Florida swept Texas A&M last weekend at home (2-1, 9-8, 11-3 in 6 innings).

Florida’s game will take place 35 minutes after the conclusion of the day’s first semifinal between LSU and Missouri. Both semifinals will air on ESPN2.

The Gators took a 2-0 lead in the first inning off a two-run home run from Skyler Wallace.

Georgia (39-16) tied it with a two-run home run in the fifth inning.

Florida regained the lead with five runs in its half of the fifth on a Wallace RBI single and SEC Player of the Year Jocelyn Erickson’s grand slam home run for a 6-2 lead.

Back-to-back home runs by the Bulldogs cut the UF lead to 6-4 in the sixth.

Florida then put the game out of reach with three runs in the sixth on Emily Wilkie’s two-run home run and another RBI single from Wallace.

Pitcher Keagan Rothrock improved to 24-6 after Ava Brown collected her second safe.

The semifinal winners will play for the tournament title at 5 p.m. ET Saturday (ESPN2).

 

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