Texas softball avoided a sweep by Arkansas with a 4-1 win Saturday in Game 3 of the final regular-season series. In the process, the Longhorns tied for fourth in the final SEC standings and claimed the No. 4 seed as well as one of the coveted double byes in this week’s conference tournament in Lexington, Kentucky.
The No. 7 Longhorns (39-10, 16-8 SEC) finished league play tied with Tennessee and Texas A&M. Tennessee didn’t play either Texas or the Aggies in the regular season, so the SEC had to use the second tiebreaker in a three-way tie to determine its fourth through sixth tournament seeds. The second tiebreaker is the won-lost percentage of the tied teams versus the highest-seeded common opponent. The three teams had such varying conference schedules that the highest-seeded common opponent was South Carolina, the tournament’s 12th seed.
Texas swept the Gamecocks, Tennessee beat South Carolina 2-1 in the series to claim the fifth seed, and the Aggies lost 2-1 to South Carolina to fall into the sixth seed.
The SEC Tournament starts Tuesday, but the Longhorns won’t play until Thursday afternoon in a quarterfinal game against either Tennessee, South Carolina or Ole Miss. The Gamecocks open the tournament Tuesday against Ole Miss, and the winner will face Tennessee Wednesday in a second-round game. The winner of that game advances to play Texas.
Texas A&M will play the winner of Tuesday’s first-round game between Auburn and Missouri on Wednesday. With a win, the Aggies advance to play third-seeded Florida.
Texas will play the third game Thursday, which means an approximate start time between 4-5 p.m.
The single-elimination tournament includes all 15 SEC teams. Vanderbilt does not participate in softball.
All times listed in CT. Times are subject to change.