Tennessee Baseball is No. 8 seed for SEC Tournament in Hoover this week

Tennessee concluded the Southeastern Conference slate tied for seventh in the league with a 16-14 record. Ole Miss and Alabama also finished with the same mark in conference play, but since all three teams didn’t play each other this season, a tiebreaker system was used to determined seeding for the SEC Tournament this week in Hoover, Ala.

When all the dust settled, the Volunteers (41-15, 16-14 SEC) received a BYE and are the eighth seed in the conference tournament, beginning play in Hoover Wednesday morning at 10:30 ET (9:30 AM local). Tennessee will take on the winner of (16) Missouri and (9) Alabama, who play on Tuesday.

If Tennessee wins its opener in Hoover, it will go on to play top-seed Texas at 4 PM ET on Wednesday. This year’s tournament will include all 16 teams in a single-elimination format.

Despite owning the head-to-head matchups with Ole Miss and Alabama this season, the Rebels get the 7-seed and the Crimson Tide the 9-seed based on common opponents. Auburn and Vanderbilt were the common opponents for the three teams and the records vs. those teams are as follows: 6-3 for Ole Miss, 5-4 for Tennessee and 3-6 for Alabama.      

Tennessee has won two of the past four SEC Baseball Tournaments in recent memory, claiming the 2022 and 2024 championships as the No. 1 seed.   

2025 SEC Baseball Seeds

No.1 Seed: Texas
No. 2 Seed: Arkansas
No. 3 Seed: LSU
No. 4 Seed: Vanderbilt
No. 5 Seed: Georgia
No. 6: Auburn
No. 7: Ole Miss
No. 8 Tennessee
No. 9: Alabama
No. 10: Florida
No. 11: Mississippi State
No. 12: Oklahoma
No. 13: Kentucky
No. 14: Texas A&M
No. 15: South Carolina
No. 16: Missouri

2025 SEC Baseball Tournament Bracket

Tennessee struggled the back-half of SEC play

It’s no secret that Tennessee needed some good vibes heading into postseason play. With the series-loss at Arkansas this weekend, the Vols end the regular season dropping five-straight series and six of thier past seven sets. Tennessee’s loss on Saturday marked the fifth-straight rubber match loss for the Vols, which ran their record in such games to 2-6 on the season. The last rubber match Tennessee won was on April 13 at Ole Miss.

Tennessee’s 10 conference series-finale outcomes this season include: 3-run win (Florida), 7-run win (@ Alabama), 5-run win (@ South Carolina), 11-run loss (Texas A&M), 2-run win (@ Ole Miss), 6-run loss (Kentucky), 10-run loss (@ LSU), 7-run loss (Auburn), 2-run loss (Vanderbilt) and four-run loss (@ Arkansas)

The Vols end the conference slate winning four of 10 weekend series (Florida, Alabama, South Carolina and Ole Miss) and dropping six series (Texas A&M, Kentucky, LSU, Auburn, Vanderbilt and Arkansas). UT swept both Florida and South Carolina and were not swept on the season, thus allowing Tennessee to finish two games over .500 in conference play at 16-14 on the year.   

With 16 conference wins on the season, that ties for third fewest of the Vitello era at Tennessee. UT stormed back after a 5-10 conference start in 2023 to finish with a 16-14 SEC record ahead of making the second trip to Omaha over a three-year period. The Vols finished with 14 league wins in 2019 and 12 in Vitello’s first season back in 2018.  

Tennessee has not won back-to-back conference games since taking Game 3 at Ole Miss on April 13 and game 1 over Kentucky at home on April 18.