NCAA Baseball Postseason: Tennessee a 2-seed in Clemson Regional
The Tennessee baseball team is NCAA Regional bound as the Volunteers were pegged as a second seed in the Clemson Regional Monday afternoon with the Tigers as the host team.
Tennessee’s first opponent will be against 3-seeded Charlotte Friday evening while Lipscomb rounds out the field of play as the fourth seed. The Clemson Regional boasts the fourth overall seed Clemson, meaning it’s paired with 13th-seeded Auburn and the Auburn Regional for Supers.
The 64 teams are divided into 16 four-team regionals, with the top 16 overall seeds hosting regional play in the double-elimination format. The host sites were announced Sunday night: Alabama, Auburn, Arkansas, Clemson, Coastal Carolina, Florida, Indiana State, Kentucky, LSU, Miami, Oklahoma State, South Carolina, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Virginia and Wake Forest.
Clemson (43-17) is set to host an NCAA Regional for the 17th time since 1980 and are making their 45th NCAA Tournament appearance – the fifth most in NCAA history. The Tigers are coming off an ACC Championship win over Miami from this past weekend. Charlotte (34-26) won its first Conference USA Tournament title over the weekend and Lipscomb (36-24) punched its ticket with an ASUN Tournament Championship as well.
The Vols (38-19) bowed out in the opening round of the 2023 Southeastern Conference Baseball Tournament on Tuesday, falling to Texas A&M who made a run to the championship game on Sunday. Tennessee ended the regular season winning 15 of its last 19 games and 11 of its final 15 conference games.
Tennessee Postseason Baseball Under Tony Vitello
Tennessee set a single-season program record with 57 wins last season, finishing 57-9 but missing out on back-to-back trips to the College World Series after losing to Notre Dame in the Super Regional Round at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
The 50-win Tennessee team in 2021 went to the College World Series in Omaha after winning the SEC East, finishing second in the SEC Tournament and going 5-0 in Regional and Super Regional play at home. The Vols beat Wright State and Liberty twice in Regional play, then swept LSU in the Super Regional at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
Tennessee won 40 games in 2019, but finished runner-up in the Chapel Hill Regional. The Vols lost to Liberty to open regional play, but bounced back with a win over UNC Wilmington and won the rematch against Liberty, before falling to North Carolina. 2019 was the last time Tennessee was on the road to begin postseason play.
