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NCAA Baseball Postseason: Tennessee the No. 1 overall seed in Field of 64

On3 imageby:Eric Cain•05/27/24•

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Tennessee baseball hat. Credit: Vasha Hunt-USA TODAY Sports
Tennessee baseball hat. Credit: Vasha Hunt-USA TODAY Sports

For the second time in three seasons, the Tennessee baseball team is the No. 1 overall seed heading into NCAA Baseball postseason play. The Vols draw the top-slot and will host the Knoxville Regional this weekend and super regionals, if necessary.

The four-team Knoxville Regional consists of the Volunteers along with 2-seed Southern Miss, 3-seed Indiana and 4-seed Northern Kentucky. Tennessee’s first game of the weekend will come on Friday against Northern Kentucky, the No. 4 seed. Game time and network will be announced later today.

The Knoxville Regional winner will advance on to play the winner of the Greenville Regional, hosted by the 16th-overall seed, Eastern Carolina. If Tennessee wins its regional this weekend, it would host Supers in Knoxville as well.

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 and the programs included 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.

Tennessee is, of course, the top-overall seed while Kentucky is second. Texas A&M is the third-overall seed while North Carolina and Arkansas rounded out the top-five. Clemson, Georgia, Florida State, Oklahoma and NC State comprise overall seeds six through 10 while Oklahoma State, Virginia, Arizona, UC Santa Barbara, Oregon State and Eastern Carolina round out the hosting sites.   

The Southeastern Conference breaks a record with 11 regional teams and five top-8 national seeds.

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.

A Look at the Knoxville Regional  

No. 1 Tennessee (50-11) | SEC Champions (X2) | D1 Baseball Poll: No. 1 | RPI: No. 1 | SOS: No. 27
No. 2 Southern Miss (41-18) | Sun Belt Conference Champs | RPI: No. 26 | SOS: No. 48
No. 3 Indiana (32-24-1) | 15-9 Big Ten | RPI: No. 55 | SOS: No. 37
No. 4 Northern Kentucky (35-22) | Horizon League Champs | RPI: No. 147 | SOS: No. 276

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.

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