With the weather looming on the horizon, the conference announced on Wednesday night that the start of the two games on Thursday would be pushed up by three hours at the very least, creating a quicker turnaround for all involved, but the day at the Met would only see two games as the cream of the conference would meet with a trip to the SEC semifinals on the line. 

In the first game of the day, with a first pitch at noon, we saw the 2026 Regular Season championship-winning Georgia teams facing the 8th-seeded Mississippi State Bulldogs fresh off a run-rule 12-2 victory over Missouri on Wednesday. Thursday’s matchup between Georgia and Mississippi State would be the 4th of the season between the two, with the Bulldogs taking the first three in a clean sweep at Dudy Noble back in early April. 

Thursday’s game with Mississippi State and Georgia would feel like heavyweight prizefighters feeling each other out for fifteen rounds before one throws the final blow to end the bout, that’s exactly what Thursday felt like between Mississippi State and Georgia as the two exchanged blows by a three run shot from Brennan Hudson that propeled Georgia to the 5-3 victory over Mississippi State to advance to play Florida on Saturday in the SEC Tournament semifinal round with a spot in the Championship game on the line. Here’s the thing about Mississippi State: they had every chance in the world to win on Thursday, but never fully got the bats alive. For Georgia, the Bulldogs did all the small things right, from bailing out the pitching to making the timely hit, Georgia did all the small things right and it gave them just enough to secure a massive win over Mississippi State. Georgia will now face Florida on Saturday morning with a spot in the SEC Tournament Championship game on the line. Mississippi State will now head back to Starkville, where they’ll await the selection and Regional destination. It’s the understanding that the Bulldogs should host a Starkville Regional, but stranger things have happened. 

In the second game of the day, it was the Florida Gators and Alabama Crimson Tide for the second spot in the SEC Tournament semi-finals on the line. Like the first game of the day, this would be the 4th meeting between the two, with Alabama taking the first three in Tuscaloosa back in late March. Unlike the first game of the day, Florida jumped on Alabama early and never really looked back as they cruised to an easy 13-3 victory. Liam Peterson delivered a masterclass pitching performance on Thursday, striking out eight Alabama batters while only allowing a single run. Like Georgia before, Florida played good defense and took advantage of Alabama’s mistakes. Now the Gators have a date with the Georgia Bulldogs on Saturday, the same Georgia team the Gators took two out of three on the road against back in April. Saturday’s matchup will likely be another instant classic in a long line of great games between these two rivals. 

There will be two games on Friday at the Hoover Met, with Arkansas and Texas playing in the first game of the day at 3:00 PM, followed by Auburn and Texas A&M for the final spot in the SEC Tournament semifinals. 

Photo credits- Georgia/ Florida/ SEC on X