How to watch the Gators vs Vols in the SEC Tournament Championship

The No. 7 seed Florida Gators have been through a gauntlet this week in Hoover. Florida will look to become the first team to win the SEC Tournament without earning a first-round bye since the format was introduced. They’ll meet the No. 1 seeded and No. 1 team in the country, the Tennessee Volunteers.

The Gators have won the SEC Tournament title seven times (1981, 1982, 1984, 1988, 1991, 2011, 2015). Tennessee has never won the SEC Tournament in its normal format. The SEC held separate tournaments for the Eastern and Western divisions in 1993, 1994, and 1995. The tournament games counted in the conference standings, and the team with the best winning percentage at the end of each tournament was crowned conference champion. Tennessee won in each of those three seasons.

This will be the fourth matchup between the SEC East rivals this season.

The Gators will be the home team on Sunday afternoon.

How to watch, stream, and listen to the SEC Tournament Championship

Who: No. 7 Florida vs No. 1 Tennessee

When: Sunday, 3:00 ET

Where: Hoover Metropolitan Complex

Home Team: Florida

TV: ESPN2

Stream: Watch ESPN

Listen: Gator Radio, ESPN 98.1FM/850AM WRUF/Sirius channel 190

How the Gators got here

Florida has had a rollercoaster of a season. The Gators kicked off the season with a series loss to Liberty. They responded by winning their next seven games and took a road series over Miami after losing the opening game.

The Gators went into the SEC schedule playing well and took two of three from Alabama to start. Then Florida lost a home series to LSU before getting swept on the road at Georgia. Three weeks later Florida was 6-12 in the SEC after a series win at home over Arkansas, followed by a series loss at Vanderbilt and a home sweep to Tennessee. To make matters worse, Florida ace Hunter Barco would need to undergo season-ending elbow surgery prior to the Tennessee series.

The Gators could have rolled over and given up. Instead, they have rallied. UF is 16-4 since the home sweep. They now have a 19-16 record against SEC competition. They’re a win away from 40 on the season. 35 days ago the Gators were on the NCAA tournament bubble. Now, there’s a good chance the Gators are one of the 16 hosting sites for that tournament.

“I was hoping we would figure it out a little bit sooner, but sometimes in this game, it doesn’t happen at the exact time you want to, in that time frame. But we’re starting to play really good, and I said this in the postgame, but our defense has been really good,” Kevin O’Sullivan said after beating Texas A&M. “I think it helps our young pitchers to have trust in their stuff a little bit more, and I thought offensively we’ve been really good the entire year. We’ve gone through spurts, where we weren’t as good as I had hoped, but for the most part, by and large, we’ve been pretty good offensively.”

How the Vols got here

Tennessee has been a runaway train all season long. The Volunteers are in the middle of the best baseball season in program history and one of the best in SEC history. Tennessee totaled 49 wins in the 2022 regular season. The previous best record going into postseason play in program history was a 45-11 mark set in 1994. The Volunteers also went 25-5 in Southeastern Conference play. UT is only the third team in league history to compile 25 conference wins.

The Vols were winners in Gainesville earlier this season. Tennessee swept the Gators 8-2, 3-0, and 6-4 (11 innings) in a three-game series.

UT continued its year-long dominance in Hoover. They beat Vanderbilt 10-1, LSU 5-2, and Kentucky 12-2 on their way to the SEC Tournament Championship.