Look: Tennessee's seeding projections in the NCAA baseball tournament
Baseball America and D1Baseball.com are in agreement when it comes to Tennessee’s postseason outlook. Both outlets this week had the Vols projected as a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament and both also had Tennessee playing in Indiana’s regional in Bloomington.
Tennessee (23-14, 5-10 SEC), which has hosted both regionals and super regionals in the last two NCAA postseasons, lost to Tennessee Tech 12-5 on Tuesday night at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. The Vols have lost three of their first SEC series of the season, including getting swept over the weekend at No. 5 Arkansas, and host No. 4 Vanderbilt this weekend.
D1Baseball.com has Tennessee matched up against No. 2 Louisville in Bloomington, along with No. 1 Indiana and No. 4 Kent State. Baseball America also has the Vols facing Louisville, opposite of No. 1 Indiana and No. 4 Central Michigan.
Tennessee 5-10 through first 15 games of SEC schedule
Missouri swept Tennessee in Columbia to start the SEC schedule. The Vols bounced back with a sweep of Texas A&M, but dropped two of three at No. 1 LSU and at home against No. 3 Florida.
“To me, it’s about us,” Tennessee coach Tony Vitello said after the loss Sunday at Arkansas. “The league – I don’t know where everybody stands – we are only worried about our dugout. But the league will dictate if you are .500, that’s a phenomenal year. Even a game under .500 is something you can hang your hat on in this league. Anything above it is phenomenal.
“We have work to do if we are going to get anywhere close to that mark. I think it’s more about us not playing as well as we can, to be that far behind .500. We have faced some really good teams.”
After Vanderbilt comes to Knoxville this weekend, Tennessee hosts Mississippi State (April 27-29), goes to Georgia (May 7-9), hosts Kentucky (May 12-14) and goes to South Carolina (May 18-20). The Vols have midweek games left against Bellarmine (April 25), Wofford (May 2), Austin Peay (May 9) and Belmont (May 16).
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Vols hosted regional, super regional the last two years
Tennessee won a program-record 57 games last season, won the SEC Tournament championship in Hoover, Ala., and was the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, beating Alabama State, Campbell and Georgia Tech in the Knoxville Regional. The Vols had their season ended in a three-game Super Regional series against Notre Dame at home, though.
In 2021, Tennessee beat Wright State and Liberty in the Knoxville regional then swept LSU in the Super Regional round to advance to the College World Series. The Vols lost their first two games in Omaha, against Virginia and Texas, and were eliminated.
Tennessee in 2019 beat UNC Wilmington, split two games with Liberty and then saw its season end in a loss to North Carolina in the Chapel Hill Regional.
Vitello said at Arkansas that his only concern during his current team’s struggle this season is being “tough enough.”
“I worry about this team playing tough enough, tough enough to where we all feel good about it when we get into postgame,” Vitello said. “When we get on the bus, go home and lay your head on the pillow, that’s what I want. That’s been said indirectly, directly – all that good stuff. This league will chew you up and spit you out if you’re not tough enough, but also the game of baseball will do the same thing too. At the end of the day, you want to be able to hang your hat on something. There’s only going to be one team that wins the last game of the year, this year. So, if it’s hanging your hat on wins and losses only – you’re chasing a ghost.”
