HOOVER, Ala. — The 2026 SEC Baseball Tournament is down to four teams. Saturday’s two semifinals at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium will set Sunday’s championship matchup, with the No. 1 seed Georgia Bulldogs facing the No. 5 seed Florida Gators at 1 p.m. ET (12 p.m. CT) on the SEC Network, and the No. 7 seed Arkansas Razorbacks facing the No. 6 seed Auburn Tigers at 4:30 p.m. ET (3:30 p.m. CT) on the SEC Network, approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of Game 13.
Sunday’s championship game airs at 2 p.m. ET on ABC.
It’s Memorial Day weekend in Hoover. Four teams. Two days. One trophy. And if you don’t have a dog in the fight, we’ve got reasons to pick one — the kind of reasons that go a little deeper than school colors.
Saturday’s semifinals at a glance
Game 13: No. 5 Florida vs. No. 1 Georgia
Time: 1 p.m. ET (12 p.m. CT)
TV: SEC Network
Streaming: ESPN+ / SEC Network app (cable login)
Records: Florida 39-18 (18-12 SEC); Georgia 44-12 (23-7 SEC)
Series context: Florida won the regular-season series 2-1 in Gainesville in April
Game 14: No. 7 Arkansas vs. No. 6 Auburn
Time: 4:30 p.m. ET (3:30 p.m. CT, approximately 30 min after Game 13 concludes)
TV: SEC Network
Streaming: ESPN+ / SEC Network app (cable login)
Records: Arkansas 38-19 (17-13 SEC); Auburn 38-18 (17-13 SEC)
Series context: The two teams split their regular-season series — Arkansas won 2-1 in Fayetteville in April, Auburn took 2-1 at home in May
Florida-Georgia: the marquee at 1 p.m. ET
The 1 p.m. ET semifinal is the matchup the entire SEC has been waiting for. Two top-five D1Baseball-ranked programs. The conference’s regular-season champion against the league’s hottest mid-tier team. Two head coaches with a combined four SEC Tournament titles between them.
The No. 1 seed Georgia Bulldogs (44-12, 23-7 SEC) advanced after Thursday’s 5-3 win over No. 8 seed Mississippi State. Brennan Hudson’s 17th home run of the season — a three-run shot in the bottom of the fourth — was the decisive blow. Joey Volchko handled five innings on the mound, Matt Scott followed with three hitless, and Tyler Pitzer closed it.
Georgia comes in with the most rested roster among the final four and the deepest pitching staff. The 2026 SEC Player of the Year, catcher Daniel Jackson — the first catcher in Division I history with a 25-25 season (.394, 27 HR, 25 SB) — anchors the lineup. The 2026 SEC Coach of the Year, Wes Johnson, is in his third year leading the Bulldogs and just won the league’s outright regular-season title at 23-7, a program record.
Georgia has never won the SEC Tournament championship. The Bulldogs are 31-52 all-time in tournament play, with three finals appearances (the last in 1989) and zero titles. A Saturday win, then a Sunday win, gets Wes Johnson the program’s first conference tournament trophy.
The No. 5 seed Florida Gators (39-18, 18-12 SEC) advanced after Thursday’s 13-3 run-rule elimination of No. 4 seed Alabama in eight innings. Florida scored 11 runs across the 5th and 7th innings. Ethan Surowiec went 4-for-5 with a home run and two doubles. Liam Peterson struck out eight in five innings.
Florida is the SEC Tournament’s most decorated program among the final four. Kevin O’Sullivan, in his 18th SEC Tournament appearance, owns the league’s most active tournament résumé: 32-25 all-time with two titles (2011, 2015). The Gators have homered in eight of their last nine tournament games (20 HRs in that span).
In the regular season, Florida took two of three from Georgia in Gainesville. O’Sullivan said on Thursday the result will mean nothing on Saturday.
“Quite honestly, I think the success we had will have no bearing on Saturday,” O’Sullivan said. “They’re playing with a ton of confidence. To win the league, especially this year, is an unbelievable accomplishment. What happened during the regular season is going to have no bearing on Saturday.”
Pitching matchup: Aidan King — the 2026 SEC Pitcher of the Year — is the likely Florida starter, on three days’ rest after throwing 75 pitches Wednesday. Georgia has options: a fresh rotation arm or Joey Volchko in his second start of the week. Florida’s bullpen is reasonably rested. Georgia’s pen is set up for a multi-game run.
Arkansas-Auburn: the mid-tier collision at 4:30 p.m. ET
The 4:30 p.m. ET semifinal is two No. 6 / No. 7 seeds who’ve earned their way through elimination wins.
The No. 7 seed Arkansas Razorbacks (38-19, 17-13 SEC) advanced Friday with an 8-1 dismantling of No. 2 seed Texas in Game 11. Second baseman Cam Kozeal hit two home runs in the first two innings — including a 450-foot blast that struck the top of the SEC backdrop in dead center. Bullpen arms Steele Eaves and Gabe Gaeckle combined for 8 1/3 innings of scoreless, three-hit relief after starter Hunter Dietz left the first inning with a line drive off the shin. Razorback revenge after Texas swept them in Austin in April.
The No. 6 seed Auburn Tigers (38-18, 17-13 SEC) advanced Friday with a 7-0 shutout of No. 3 seed Texas A&M in Game 12. Andreas Alvarez threw 9 strikeouts across five-plus shutout innings, Mason McCraine launched a 422-foot HR, Ethin Bingaman added a 412-foot solo shot, and LJ Cormier closed it. Auburn used just two pitchers across nine innings, leaving rotation depth in reserve.
Butch Thompson, Auburn’s head coach since 2016, is 6-11 in SEC Tournaments across nine appearances. The Tigers have won at least 17 SEC games in four of the last five seasons.
Dave Van Horn, Arkansas’s head coach since 2003, is 29-33 in the SEC Tournament across 21 appearances. He won the 2021 SEC Tournament. The Razorbacks are at their lowest seed since 2014 (No. 5) but have now stacked two consecutive elimination wins.
Pitching matchup: Both staffs are unusually well-positioned. Arkansas’s Friday workload was light because of the early lead; Dietz’s status remains the wild card after the line drive off his shin. Auburn used Marciano and Sanders Wednesday and Alvarez and Cormier Friday, but the rotation depth is still there — likely a fresh starter Saturday (possibly Cooper McMurray or another Auburn arm). Both staffs are positioned for a Sunday run if they advance.
Who to cheer for: a “Baseball Without Borders” guide
We’re World Baseball Network. We track where these kids actually come from — their hometowns, their cultures, the pipelines that delivered them to the SEC. If you don’t have a school in this thing, here are reasons to pick one that go a little deeper than the color of the jersey.
? Cheer for Arkansas if you love the Hawaiian baseball story
This is the deepest international identity thread in the entire tournament. Three native-born Hawaiian student-athletes are on the Arkansas roster — the most in program history at any one time, and one of the most striking cultural pipelines in modern college baseball:
- Kuhio Aloy, outfielder — Wailuku, Maui. Younger brother of 2025 Golden Spikes Award winner Wehiwa Aloy, the first-round draft pick now in the Baltimore Orioles organization. The Aloy brothers were the first siblings ever to earn First Team All-SEC honors together (2025). Their father Jamie played college baseball at Hawaiʻi and was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in 1999. Kuhio and Wehiwa are Henry Perrine Baldwin High graduates from Maui. The fans in Hawaii call them the “Bash Bruddahs.” Even Texas head coach Jim Schlossnagle, in his postgame after Arkansas eliminated his Longhorns Friday, mentioned Aloy by name: “I don’t know if they’re getting their Aloy back or not, but just the physical team that knows how to win.”
- Nolan Souza, infielder — Honolulu. A Punahou School graduate (yes, the same Honolulu school that produced Barack Obama). One of only five native-born Hawaiian student-athletes in Arkansas baseball history. Went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a walk in the Razorbacks’ Friday elimination of Texas.
- Maika Niu, outfielder — Pacific Islander heritage, transfer from Marshall via New Orleans, originally from Pennsylvania. Went 2-for-4 with a double and a walk in Friday’s win.
When Arkansas hosted regional weekend last year, fans flew over from Hawaii decked out in island gear, waving enormous Hawaiian flags. There’s a real pipeline forming from the Pacific to the SEC, and Arkansas is the program building it. If you’ve ever wondered what it would feel like to watch the islands take on the Deep South, this is the team.
Arkansas also has Texas-born TJ Pompey (Texas Tech transfer) and Damian Ruiz, plus Omaha’s Cam Kozeal — the Vanderbilt transfer whose 450-foot home run hit the top of the SEC backdrop on Friday.
?? Cheer for Florida if you’ve got Canadian ties (or just love a Canadian baseball story)
The Gators’ first baseman is Brendan Lawson — Toronto, Ontario, by way of P27 Academy. A returning starter from last year’s NCAA Regional squad, Lawson is one of the most prominent Canadians in SEC baseball this season. Baseball Canada has been quietly producing high-level college talent for years (think Édouard Julien, the former Auburn product now with the Minnesota Twins), and Lawson is part of that next wave.
Florida also runs a quietly diverse roster: Minjae Seo (right-hander, Korean heritage by way of Carrollton, Texas), Karson Bowen (catcher, Anaheim Hills, Calif. via TCU), Cooper Walls (right-hander out of San Diego who pitched at Hawaii), and reliever Ernesto Lugo-Canchola, the graduate left-hander from Pleasant Grove, Utah, by way of Northwest Nazarene.
If you root for Canadian baseball or for the slow build of Hispanic and Asian-American identity in the Deep South college game, Florida’s got the players.
? Cheer for Georgia if you love history that’s never quite been made
Georgia has never won the SEC Tournament. Never. In 83 tournament games, in three finals appearances dating back to 1989, the Bulldogs have zero titles. They were the regular-season conference champion this year for the first time in program history — and they’re trying to convert it into the first tournament trophy in program history.
The Bulldogs also have a quietly international tilt to their portal-built lineup:
- Kenny Ishikawa — outfielder, Japanese-American, Seattle native, transferred in from a Pacific Northwest program. The kind of player Baseball Without Borders exists to highlight: a Japanese-American kid from the Northwest finding his platform in the Deep South.
- Caden Aoki — right-handed pitcher, Japanese-American, transferred from USC.
- Jordy Oriach — outfielder, Hispanic-heritage transfer from New Mexico.
- Daniel Jackson — the SEC Player of the Year. The first catcher in Division I baseball history to put up a 25-25 season. Not international, but historic in a different way.
Cheer for Georgia if you want a coronation. The No. 1 seed, the conference’s player of the year behind the plate, the conference’s coach of the year on the bench, and the program with the heaviest weight of “we’ve never done this” pressing down on them.
? Cheer for Auburn if you love the underdog blue-collar build
Auburn is the SEC’s most consistent mid-tier program over the last five years — four straight seasons of 17+ SEC wins, three consecutive SEC Tournament appearances as a top-six seed. Butch Thompson is in his 10th year on the Plains, and his roster reflects what he’s built: a deep, balanced, mostly southern team with rotation depth and bullpen arms that travel.
Auburn’s roster doesn’t carry the same international identity threads as Arkansas, Florida, or Georgia — it’s a predominantly Southeastern roster, heavy on Alabama, Tennessee, and Florida hometowns. But if you love the program-built-from-grit story, this is your team. Tigers third baseman Andreas Alvarez represents a quieter Hispanic-heritage thread in the lineup, and Friday’s starter — who struck out nine in the elimination of Texas A&M — embodies the Auburn pitching depth that Butch Thompson has stitched together year by year. Closer LJ Cormier, who finished off the Aggies, adds another Acadian-French Louisiana name to the back end.
Cheer for Auburn if you root for the program that does it without the headlines.
The bracket from here
The two Saturday winners advance to Sunday’s championship game.
Sunday, May 24 — Championship
Game 15: Winner Game 13 vs. Winner Game 14 — 2 p.m. ET on ABC
The championship game airs on ABC — over the air via local ABC affiliates, plus ABC.com and ESPN+ for cord-cutters.
Updated bracket
Eliminated: Ole Miss, Kentucky, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Missouri, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, LSU, Mississippi State, Alabama, Texas, Texas A&M.
Final four: Florida, Georgia, Arkansas, Auburn.
How to watch from home
Both Saturday semifinals air on the SEC Network, which is available on most major cable and satellite providers:
- SEC Network app (with cable login)
- ESPN+ (subscription required)
- Fubo (free trial available)
- YouTube TV, Hulu Live, DirecTV Stream, Sling TV (all carry SEC Network)
Sunday’s championship game on ABC at 2 p.m. ET is available over the air via local ABC affiliates and through ABC.com / ESPN+ for cord-cutters.
Memorial Day weekend at Hoover
Saturday at the Hoover Met is the kind of day that defines the SEC Tournament’s identity. Two semifinals, four programs, four head coaches who each represent a different era of conference baseball: Kevin O’Sullivan’s Florida (since 2008), Wes Johnson’s Georgia (since 2023), Dave Van Horn’s Arkansas (since 2003), Butch Thompson’s Auburn (since 2016).
Last year’s semifinal Saturday at the Hoover Met drew 14,775 — the fourth-largest single-session crowd in tournament history. Saturday 2026 has the chance to break that.
Two days. Four teams. One trophy. And a roster of stories that stretch from Maui to Toronto, from Seattle to Wailuku, from Punahou to Plainsman Park.
For more on the 2026 SEC Tournament
- Game 11 Recap: Arkansas 8, Texas 1
- Game 12 Recap: Auburn 7, Texas A&M 0
- Game 10 Recap: Florida 13, Alabama 3 (8 inn., run rule)
- Game 9 Recap: Georgia 5, Mississippi State 3
- Game 8 Recap: Auburn 3, LSU 1
- Game 7 Recap: Arkansas 8, Tennessee 4
- Game 6 Recap: Florida 8, Vanderbilt 3
- Game 5 Recap: Mississippi State 12, Missouri 2 (7 inn.)
- Game 4 Recap: LSU 6, Oklahoma 2
- Game 3 Recap: Tennessee 11, South Carolina 6
- Game 2 Recap: Vanderbilt 8, Kentucky 5
- Game 1 Recap: Missouri 10, Ole Miss 8
- How to Watch: Friday Quarterfinals
- How to Watch: Thursday Quarterfinals
- How to Watch: Original Tournament Preview
Official sources
2026 SEC Baseball Tournament Schedule (Final 4)
Saturday, May 23 — Semifinals (SEC Network)
Game 13: No. 5 Florida vs. No. 1 Georgia — 1 p.m. ET
Game 14: No. 7 Arkansas vs. No. 6 Auburn — 4:30 p.m. ET
Sunday, May 24 — Championship (ABC)
Game 15: Winner Game 13 vs. Winner Game 14 — 2 p.m. ET
