Bogle Park set to host SEC Tournament

Arkansas fans call the Hogs Friday, May 20, 2022, during the Razorbacks’ 11-0 run-rule-shortened win over Princeton at Bogle Park in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE — Twelve softball teams will arrive this week with one common goal: leave with a large piece of hardware.

The only team that did not have to travel is the one hoping to defend its trophy from a season ago. For the first time since 2010, Bogle Park is the host site for the SEC Softball Tournament.

Arkansas claimed its first conference tournament championship last May in Gainesville, Fla., and now looks to protect the title on its home turf.

The event rotates member campuses with softball programs. The only SEC school without a team is Vanderbilt.

This year marks the second time the cycle has spun to Arkansas. The tournament will be played on the reigning NFCA Field of the Year, which is maintained by Bogle Park’s head groundskeeper Austin Freeman.

“I think it’s really exciting,” Arkansas coach Courtney Deifel said after the home regular-season finale. “I’m excited to host it at Bogle. I don’t know if all our people are quite as excited [because] they have to work a lot harder than me. I think we have just an amazing stadium, our fan base is huge and our people do an incredible job.

“We get to see Austin’s work. Austin’s going to be very tired at the end of the week, but his work on our field is just so nice. And so I’m excited to showcase all our people and how great they are. It’ll be really exciting.”

Standing in the way of a Razorbacks repeat is a field of 12 strong opponents.

Nine teams, including Arkansas (38-16), were ranked in the latest USA Today/NFCA Coaches Poll, which is the poll of record for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Chief among those teams is fourth-ranked Tennessee (41-8), coached by Karen Weekly. The Lady Volunteers won the SEC regular-season championship Saturday against South Carolina and finished with a 19-5 conference record.

It put a bow on a league race that Tennessee led wire-to-wire. However, the Lady Vols recently suffered their lone conference series loss on the same field the tournament will be played on.

After winning the series opener against Arkansas on April 29, the Razorbacks won consecutive games to upset Tennessee and send a message to the league that they will not give up their champion status from a year ago easily.

But behind star senior ace Ashley Rogers (0.76 ERA) and the dangerous bats of SEC home runs leader Kiki Milloy (21 home runs), McKenna Gibson (.375 batting average) and Mackenzie Donihoo (league-leading 15 doubles), Tennessee is the team with a target on its back entering the tournament.

The top-seeded Lady Vols, along with Georgia (39-12), Auburn (39-16) and Arkansas, will not play until Thursday’s quarterfinals due to a top-four finish in the standings.

Georgia took the SEC by notice and well exceeded the sixth-place finish projected in the coaches’ preseason poll. The Bulldogs lead the league in a multitude of offensive categories, including batting average (.322), slugging percentage (.580) and home runs (80).

Second-year coach Tony Baldwin’s team does not lack power. Jayda Kearney (18 home runs), Sara Mosley (16) and Sydney Kuma (11) highlight the Bulldogs’ bats, which have consistently ranked top-five among Division I teams in home runs.

Paired with the pitching tandem of Shelby Walters (17-4, 1.34 ERA) and Madison Kerpics (17-6, 2.44 ERA), Georgia may be the team best team suited to prevent Tennessee from winning a tournament title.

Pitching stardom trickles throughout the conference. Auburn’s Maddie Penta leads the SEC with 25 wins, Arkansas’ Chenise Delce is the reigning pitcher of the year and Alabama’s Montana Fouts has struck out a league-best 292 batters in 199 2/3 innings pitched.

Fouts and the Crimson Tide (38-17) are the No. 5 seed, preceding teams seeded six through 11, which will begin play Wednesday. Alabama is followed in the standings by LSU (40-14), Texas A&M (33-18), Florida (35-19), Kentucky (30-19-1), South Carolina (34-19) and Ole Miss (29-25).

Florida star shortstop Skylar Wallace may be a lock to win SEC player of the year honors, which will be announced during the event. In conference-only games, Wallace leads the league in nine different offensive categories. She is considered a true triple threat, meaning she can slap, bunt and hit the ball effectively.

Kentucky boasts a pair of talented players in Erin Coffel and Kayla Kowalik, South Carolina pitcher Donnie Gobourne has proven she can keep the Gamecocks in any game with her in the circle, and LSU tops the SEC with a No. 6 ranking in the NCAA’s RPI.

The tournament will begin Tuesday with a battle between borderline NCAA Tournament teams in No. 12 seed Mississippi State (28-24) and 13th-seeded Missouri (33-23). The game is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m., with Alabama awaiting the winner Wednesday.

While the title appears to be up for grabs, there is one thing that does look to be a certainty: some of the nation’s best teams and players are ready to put on a show inside Bogle Park.