Report: Texas A&M, South Carolina softball players leave dugouts amid SEC Tournament lightning delay

At approx. 5:05 p.m. ET, the SEC softball tournament entered a lightning delay as South Carolina and Texas A&M were in the eighth inning. Based on some reporting out of Fayetteville, the game might not be resuming for some time.

According to ExtraInningSoftball’s Justin McLeod, both teams left their respective dugouts. He also reported “at least” one team decided to head back to its hotel. All the while, the tarp was being placed on the field at Bogle Park — basically proving “the delay isn’t ending anytime soon.”

The first game of the day between Ole Miss and LSU also went to extra innings before the Rebels won 5-3 to advance to the next round. However, there were supposed to be three more games after that: South Carolina vs. Texas A&M, Missouri vs. Alabama and Kentucky vs. Florida. The SEC didn’t provide an update on the status of the remaining games, but acknowledged the delay was still ongoing as of 6:33 p.m. ET.

“We remain in an extended weather delay here in Fayetteville,” the league tweeted. “Stay tuned for additional updates as we continue to monitor the situation.”

With two outs in the top of the eighth inning — just after the Gamecocks took a 1-0 lead — play was suspended due to lightning in the area of Bogle Park in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Teams must wait 30 minutes after the last strike to start play again, per NCAA rules.

Just before the umpires suspended play, Riley Blampied got South Carolina on the board with the game’s first run. She hit a single to right field to bring Emma Sellers around to score and give the Gamecocks the lead in the first extra inning.

South Carolina, Texas A&M took part in a thriller in first round of SEC softball tournament

South Carolina squared off in quite the pitchers’ duel to send the game to extra innings. Both starting pitchers left early, but the relievers picked up right where they left off.

For South Carolina, Karsen Ochs started in the circle, allowing two hits in 2.2 innings before Donnie Gobourne took over. She threw 4.1 innings of relief, striking out five and sending down nine straight batters to help keep Texas A&M off the scoreboard to keep it a 0-0 tie entering extra innings.

Shaylee Ackerman threw 4.0 innings to start the game for Texas A&M and didn’t allow a hit before Emiley Kennedy took over in the fifth inning. She threw 3.0 innings of relief and stayed in the circle for the eighth inning, where she ran into trouble. Kennedy hit two batters and allowed the RBI single to Blampied before lightning caused the delay.