Top seeds UF, Bama survive

• Advocate staff report
• Published: May 9, 2008 - Page: 3C - UPDATED: 12:30 a.m.

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The top two seeds had to gut out dramatic victories Thursday as the Southeastern Conference softball tournament unfolded at Tiger Park with four quarterfinal games.

Top-ranked Florida and second-seeded Alabama both survived 1-0 victories, while fourth-seeded Tennessee cruised past Georgia 5-2.

Alabama survived to take on LSU in today’s 7:30 p.m. semifinal, but the Crimson Tide made sure they added some excitement to the second session of the opening round.

And that flair for the dramatic made up for six-plus innings of offensive struggles.

Mississippi State pitcher Misty Flesher held fourth-ranked Alabama (50-5) without a hit through six innings before left fielder Dani Woods led off the bottom of the seventh with a clean single up the middle.

Flesher got the first out on a failed sacrifice bunt, but hurt herself when she threw wildly on a routine ground ball near the first-base line off the bat of Bama All-American Lauren Parker.

State (40-20) walked Whitney Larsen intentionally to load the bases, bringing up center fielder Brittany Rogers, who singled sharply to the left of Bulldogs second baseman Ali Bainbridge to score Woods with game-winning run.

Tide pitcher Kelsi Dunne matched Flesher all night, striking out nine and permitting only four singles. The Bulldogs threatened in the fifth, loading the bases with two outs. Sammie Joe Bailey battled Dunne for nine pitches before flying out to left field.

“It’s a tough loss,” State coach Jay Miller said. “We certainly played well enough to win. Obviously, Misty Fletcher pitched a great ballgame. You hate to waste a pitching performance like that. We just didn’t do a very good job of adjusting at the plate, but you have to give credit to Kelsi Dunne. She made the pitches when she had to. We had some great opportunities with runners in scoring position that we left out there.”

FLORIDA 1, OLE MISS 0: Francesa Enea has made a habit of delivering big hits for Florida all season. So why should the Gators’ first game of the postseason be any different?

Enea whacked a 1-and-1 offering from Ole Miss pitcher Becky Nye just over the center-field fence with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning to lift Florida past the Rebels.

The Gators (60-2) will square off with 14th-ranked Tennessee (47-13) in today’s first semifinal game (5 p.m.).

With Nye locked in a pitcher’s duel with Florida freshman Stephanie Brombacher, the game went to the bottom of the sixth scoreless. That ended when Enea jacked her 14th long ball of the season.