The SEC regular season closes on a high note this weekend, with the nation's No. 1-ranked team, Alabama, facing No. 2 Tennessee in a three-game series. The teams will play a doubleheader on Saturday afternoon and a single game on Sunday (the conference tournament then begins on Thursday, May 10).

The official SEC softball page has a nice preview of the series, with all kinds of statistics and brief featured-player profiles.

I've been skeptical of 'Bama this season, given what I consider a much less challenging schedule than that played by other top teams in the country (click here to see the Tide's schedule and results, and be sure to look at the column titled "Opp Rank" to see the ranking, if any, of each of their opponents).

Quoting from the Tennessee article previewing the series:

The series opener (Saturday at 1 p.m. ET) will be shown on ESPN2 while the finale (Sunday 1 p.m. ET) will be broadcast on ESPN with Eric Collins and U.S. National Team member Cat Osterman on the call for the two match-ups.

The preview article from Alabama's site is available here.

I would be remiss, especially if there are any LSU fans reading this, if I didn't note that the No. 4 Bayou Bengals have won their series against Alabama and Tennessee this season, each by two games to one. LSU has Georgia on its mind this weekend.