While thousands of students walk across a stage in Coleman Coliseum during graduation on Friday and Saturday, No. 4 Alabama softball will take on No. 15 Georgia in a three-game series. Four players on the Crimson Tide will miss graduation to take on the Bulldogs.

“It’s pretty cool,” senior utility player Kallie Case said. “You get to be a professional college softball player for a few weeks so that’s the best part. You have no worries about school anymore. You just get to go out here and play the game you love.”

After the series with Georgia, Alabama will head to Starkville, Mississippi, for the SEC tournament. Following the conference tournament, NCAA postseason starts with regionals.

But first, Georgia.

Georgia currently leads the country with a .363 team batting average. The Bulldogs average a home run a game and are top-10 in slugging percentage (.542). As a team, Alabama hits .313.

“Every swing you kind of hold your breath when three through seven swing because they swing hard,” Alabama coach Patrick Murphy said. 

Alabama allows 2.20 earned runs per game. Georgia has a 2.18 team ERA.

“This was a year we tried not to [look at SEC standings] at all, especially after we beat Florida,” Murphy said. “We’ve won six of the seven [SEC series] and that to me is a really good season. If we can win seven out of eight, that’s a heck of a good year no matter where you finish.”

Alabama (43-10, 14-7 SEC) hosts Georgia (39-14, 11-10 SEC) starting Friday at 6:30 p.m. First pitch on Saturday is at 11 a.m. on ESPN. The series concludes Sunday at 1 p.m. with the Power of Pink game.