Lady Vols earn bye for SEC softball tournament

Tennessee's Chelsea Seggern makes contact during Sunday's 3-0 win against Longwood in an NCAA regional at Lee Stadium in Knoxville. The Vols won all three of their games in the double-elimination event — which included Ohio State and the University of South Carolina-Upstate — and will host a super regional against Texas A&M this week. (Photo: Austin Perryman/University of Tennessee Athletics)
Tennessee's Chelsea Seggern makes contact during Sunday's 3-0 win against Longwood in an NCAA regional at Lee Stadium in Knoxville. The Vols won all three of their games in the double-elimination event — which included Ohio State and the University of South Carolina-Upstate — and will host a super regional against Texas A&M this week. (Photo: Austin Perryman/University of Tennessee Athletics)

Tennessee set out to bolster its postseason positioning in its final softball series of the regular season.

Mission accomplished.

The No. 7 Lady Volunteers took two of three games at No. 24 Mississippi State over the weekend. The good showing in Starkville was capped by Sunday's 6-3 win that clinched a bye in this week's Southeastern Conference tournament in Columbia, Mo.

The tourney opener for fourth-seeded Tennessee (44-11, 14-10) is at 5 EDT Thursday against the winner of Wednesday's first-round game between No. 12 seed Ole Miss and No. 5 seed LSU.

Chelsea Seggern hit a three-run home run in Sunday's rubber game against Mississippi State (35-20, 7-17) as the Lady Vols jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning and held on behind a complete game from Caylan Arnold (23-4).

Arnold was also the winning pitcher in the Lady Vols' 7-4 victory Friday.

Reserve pitchers Ashley Morgan and Gabby Sprang toed the rubber for Tennessee in a 10-3 loss Saturday. Sprang took the loss as the Lady Vols played several reserves.

The series victory should keep Tennessee in contention for a top-eight seed in the NCAA postseason, which begins May 18. Teams seeded eighth or better are in position to host super regionals, should they advance.

Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.

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