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After a rain-filled week in Birmingham, Alabama, the 2022 SEC Baseball Tournament championship game is set with the Florida Gators taking on the Tennessee Volunteers.
Florida might be running on fumes when Sunday’s game begins. It had to play twice on Saturday, first defeating Alabama to reach the semifinals. The Gators followed that up with a 9-0 shutout against Texas A&M in their semifinal matchup.
2022 SEC Championship Game Schedule
Matchup: Florida (39-21) vs. Tennessee (52-7)
Date: Sunday, May 29
Start Time: 3 p.m. ET
Watch: ESPN 2
The Gators have been living on the edge throughout the tournament. They needed extra innings to beat South Carolina in the single-elimination first round.
In their first game in the second round, the Gators were blown out 10-0 by Texas A&M in a matchup that was called after seven innings due to the run rule.
Needing to win two straight games or be sent home, Florida beat Arkansas on Friday and Alabama on Saturday to advance to the semifinals. It got revenge on the Aggies in a rematch, with a 9-0 victory to reach the championship game.
Florida’s offense has been on fire since scoring a total of two runs in its first two tournament games. The group is averaging nine runs per contest in its last three contests, all elimination games.
The lineup will need to step up again on Sunday. Tennessee is tied for third in the nation with 9.4 runs per game.
This will mark the fourth game between Florida and Tennessee this season. The Volunteers swept a three-game series at Condron Family Ballpark in Gainesville from April 22-24. They outscored the Gators 17-6 in that series.
The Vols were given their first real test of the tournament in the semifinal on Saturday night. Their game against Kentucky was tied at two until the top of the eighth until Luc Lipcius scored when Jorel Ortega was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
Cortland Lawson broke things open with an RBI single with the bases loaded to make it a 6-2 game. Ultimately, they turned a tie score into an easy 12-2 win.
Tennessee has been a machine all season en route to its second straight appearance in the SEC title game. It hasn’t won a a conference tournament championship since 1995.
The Volunteers are the only team in the nation that has won at least 50 games so far this season. Their magical run in 2022 should include an SEC tournament title.
Prediction: Tennessee 6, Florida 2
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