NCAA announces 16 host sites for NCAA Tournament regionals
Tennessee Baseball is one of 16 teams that will host a regional in the NCAA Tournament and is projected to be the No. 1 overall seed when the 64-team field is released on Monday.
The NCAA announced the 16 host sites Sunday night. The other 15 hosts, in the order they were annoucned, were Georgia, Texas A&M, North Carolina, Virginia, Clemson, Oregon State, Arkansas, East Carolina, Kentucky, Oklahoma, North Carolina State, UC Santa Barbara, Oklahoma State, Florida State and Arizona.
KNOXVILLE REGIONAL
— NCAA Baseball (@NCAABaseball) May 27, 2024
HOST: @Vol_Baseball #RoadToOmaha pic.twitter.com/9jRcwdAp7T
Tennessee beat LSU 4-3 in the SEC Tournament championship game on Sunday, doubling up as SEC regular-season and SEC Tournament champions for the second time in three years.
The Vols entered Sunday’s SEC Tournament championship game as the projected as the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Baseball Tournament according to both D1Baseball.com and Baseball America.
The 64-team NCAA Tournament Baseball bracket will be released on Monday at Noon Eastern Time on ESPN2. Regionals begin Friday and run through Monday. Super Regionals are set for June 7-9 or June 8-10 and the College World Series in Omaha begins on June 14 and runs through June 24.
Tennessee beats LSU for second SEC Tournament championship in last three years
Billy Amick opened the scoring for Tennessee against LSU in the third inning Sunday afternoon, blasting a three-run home run with two out to put the Vols up 3-1. Hunter Ensley singled and drove in a run in the seventh to add to the lead.
Tennessee used five pitchers in the win. AJ Russell started, pitching the first inning, before giving way to Dylan Loy, the freshman left-hander who went 4.2 innings, striking out five while giving up just two hits.
Tennessee rallied to win the SEC Tournament despite losing its first game in Hoover, 14-3 against Vanderbilt. The Vols answered the loss by beating Texas A&M and Mississippi State, then winning the semifinal rematch against Vanderbilt Saturday night to advance to Sunday’s title game against LSU.
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Tennessee was playing in the SEC Tournament championship game for the third time in four years. The Vols lost to Arkansas in the final in 2021 and beat Florida for the tournament title in 2022, before becoming the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Tennessee’s NCAA Baseball postseason history under Tony Vitello
Tony Vitello in 2019 took Tennessee back to college baseball’s postseason for the first time since 2005 with a 40-win season in just his second year on the job. The Vols were eliminated by North Carolina in the Chapel Hill Regional final after wins over UNC Wilmington and Liberty.
In 2021, after the COVID pandemic cancelled the 2020 season, Tennessee won 50 games and went back to the College World Series for the first time since 2005, sweeping LSU in the Knoxville Super Regional before losing to No. 8 Virginia then No. 2 Texas in Omaha.
The Vols won 57 games in 2022 and were the No. 1 overall seed in the postseason, but were upset by Notre Dame in the Knoxville Super Regional.
Tennessee’s 44-win team last season advanced out of the Clemson Regional and won in three games in the Southern Miss Super Regional to go back to Omaha. There, the Vols lost to LSU 6-3, bounced back with a 6-4 win over Stanford but were sent home after a 5-0 loss to LSU.
