Arkansas wins 1st SEC tournament championship in softball

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With its first outright SEC regular-season title already in hand, Arkansas' softball team added to its trophy case Saturday afternoon.

The Razorbacks shut out Missouri 4-0 in Gainesville, Fla., to complete a perfect run through the SEC Tournament and capture their first tournament title in program history.

A pair of RBI singles by Danielle Gibson and Marlene Friedman in the first and second innings, respectively, gave Arkansas an early lead and then it used an error and wild pitch to tack on two more in the fifth.

That was plenty of run support for Chenise Delce, who lived up to her SEC Pitcher of the Year award by tossing her fourth shutout of the season. She allowed just two hits and struck out five in seven innings, improving to 17-2 with a 2.19 ERA.

Arkansas is 44-9 overall and awaits Sunday's NCAA Tournament selection show. Ranked No. 4 in the polls and RPI, the Razorbacks are widely expected to be a top-eight national seed and have home field advantage until the Women's College World Series.

They are still searching for their first trip to Oklahoma City in program history.

However, Saturday's win was a monumental -- and rare -- moment for the Razorbacks. They are now just 6-31 all-time in head-to-head conference championship games since joining the SEC.

Four of those victories have come in the last five years, with the women's golf team beating South Carolina and men's golf team beating Auburn to capture the 2018 and 2019 SEC titles, respectively, and the baseball team knocking off Tennessee to win its first SEC Tournament title last year.

The other two SEC Championship Game wins came more than two decades ago, as the volleyball team beat Florida in 1997 and the men's basketball team beat Auburn in 2000.

It is worth noting that the chart below includes only sports that have a championship that pits two teams head-to-head. That means Arkansas' dominant cross country and track and field teams - which have combined to win numerous SEC titles - are not included.

Similarly, the men's golf team's 1995 title came in stroke play. It wasn't until a few years ago that the golf championship was decided through match play.

Here is the breakdown of Arkansas' history in SEC tournament finals or championship games across all sports...

~Volleyball: 1-7

~Soccer: 0-8

~Men's basketball: 1-6

~Baseball: 1-4

~Football: 0-3

~Men's golf: 1-1

~Softball: 1-1

~Women's golf: 1-0

~Women's basketball: 0-1

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