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Tennessee baseball, softball and men's basketball sets SEC record with three championships

IMG_3593by:Grant Ramey•05/19/24•

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Tennessee Baseball winning a share of the SEC’s regular-season championship on Saturday afternoon made history across three sports. Tennessee’s baseball, softball and men’s basketball programs became the first in SEC history to win their respective league titles in the same year. 

Tennessee (46-10, 22-8 SEC) got a share of the SEC’s regular-season title after a 4-1 win over South Carolina at Lindsey Nelson Stadium, completing the three-game weekend sweep. Vanderbilt’s win at Kentucky Saturday helped the Vols split the season title with the Wildcats.

The regular season ended with nine straight SEC series wins for the Vols.

Tennessee is the No. 1 seed in this week’s SEC Tournament and will begin play at the Hoover Metropolitan Complex in Hoover, Ala., on Wednesday, a 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time start.

The Vols will await the winner of 8-seed Vanderbilt and 9-seed Florida, who will play in single-elimination round on Tuesday at approximately 5:30 pm Eastern Time.

Tony Vitello has led Tennessee to three SEC championships, winning the regular-season championship and SEC Tournament title in 2022 and the share of the regular-season championship earned on Saturday. 

The Vols won the SEC regular-season title just three times — 1951, 1994 and 1995 — before the arrival of Vitello. 

Tennessee Softball’s won SEC championship for second straight season

Tennessee Softball faces Virginia in the Knoxville Regional Final at 4 p.m. ET Sunday at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium, with a spot in the Super Regionals on the line.

The Lady Vols (42-10) went 19-5 in SEC play to win the league’s regular-season championship. It gave the program back-to-back SEC regular-season titles, something only won three times since the inception of SEC softball in 1997. 

Tennessee won the SEC Tournament last year, but was one-and-done after losing to LSU 2-1 in the SEC Tournament in Auburn on May 9. The Lady Vols beat Dayton 3-0 to open the NCAA postseason on Friday and beat Virginia 12-0 on Saturday to advance to the Regional Final.

Tennessee Basketball won first outright SEC regular-season title since 2008

Tennessee Basketball went 14-4 during SEC play to win an outright regular-season championship for the first time since 2008, clinching the title with a 66-59 win at South Carolina on March 6. 

The Vols were one-and-done in the SEC Tournament in Nashville after a loss to Mississippi State on March 15, which followed a Senior Day loss to Kentucky at Thompson-Boling Arena on March 9 in the regular-season finale.

From there, though, Tennessee went on a run to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament for just the second time in program history, going through No. 15 Saint Peter’s, No. 7 Texas and No. 3 Creighton before falling to No. 1 Purdue in the Midwest Regional Final on March 31. 

Rick Barnes has now led the Vols to two regular-season SEC championships (2017-18, 2023-24) and one SEC Tournament championship (2022).

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