First team All-SEC junior catcher Kellsi Kloss steps up to the plate with the No. 3 LSU softball team tied, 10-10, with defending national champion and top-ranked Florida in the top of the seventh inning on March 14.
On the fifth pitch of the at-bat, Kloss smashes a grand slam over the left field wall and ties the series. The Tigers went on to take the series with a 10-3 win in Game 3, handing the eventual national champion Gators their only conference series loss of the 2015 season.
For years, this series would not have earned a spot on a national network.
But since the SEC Network first came onto the air in August 2014, women’s sports throughout the conference have gained traction on a national stage as the network broadcasts events that would not have received coverage otherwise.
“There are so many great players and so many great stories that are being told now through the SEC Network,” said LSU women’s basketball coach Nikki Caldwell. “You are seeing young ladies who are making an impact, not just on women’s basketball, but [in] women’s athletics. It allows our fans to see them compete at a high level.”
Throughout its first 11 months on the air, the network has showcased the SEC’s depth on the women’s side despite men’s sports typically being the face of the conference nationally.
Softball has been a key part of this changing view of the league with the SEC featuring three of the last four national champions and more than half of the 2015 Women’s College World Series field.
In the 2015 season alone, the SEC Network broadcasted more than 50 softball games in addition to the 227 games available online through the SEC Network+, including the first round and the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament, according to a news release.
For the first time, fans were able to connect with individual players by watching them play and develop on a weekly basis.
With the expansion of coverage, the sport’s national audience grew and eventually resulted in the most-viewed WCWS Championship Finals in history with an average of 1,912,000 viewers per game tuning in for the best-of-three series between Florida and Michigan.
In the 2015 WCWS alone, four games featuring an SEC team, according to a news release, were added to the record books as one of the 10 most-watched games in the WCWS since 1990, including LSU vs. Michigan in the semifinals at No. 4 with 1,950,000 average viewers.
But softball is not the only women’s sport getting expanded coverage on the SEC Network.
In its second round of covering volleyball and women’s soccer in the fall, the network will add Wednesday night volleyball and Thursday night soccer games to its weekly schedule, according to a news release.
The LSU volleyball team will open its SEC schedule at home against Arkansas on ESPNU on Sept. 23. Throughout the 2015 season, the Tigers will have seven matches broadcasted on the SEC Network.
Both of the LSU soccer team’s games scheduled to be broadcasted on the network fall on Thursday nights, with LSU taking on Georgia at home on Sept. 17 before traveling to Arkansas on Oct. 15.
Looking back on where women’s sports were during her playing days at Tennessee in the ’90s, Caldwell said she is amazed at how far the coverage has come.
“I’ve seen women’s basketball from the ’90s when you only had the Final Four televised on CBS to now seeing 70 games on televisions live,” Caldwell said. “We have so many players from all over the country that not necessarily everyone come and see them play live, but you’re able now to see your daughter … on a national stage.”
You can reach Morgan Prewitt on Twitter @kmprewitt_TDR.