Tennessee baseball begins play at the SEC Tournament on Thursday evening when the top-seeded Vols face instate rival Vanderbilt at the Hoover Met.
It’s the fourth meeting between the two teams in less than two weeks after Tennessee won two out of three games over the Commodores in Nashville in its penultimate regular season series.
Tennessee has already locked up a national seed while Vanderbilt should be comfortably in the NCAA Tournament. Neither team has a ton to play for other than pride in a heated rivalry.
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How To Watch — No. 1 Tennessee (46-10, 22-8 SEC) vs Vanderbilt (36-20, 13-17 SEC)
- 5:30 p.m. ET
- Watch: SEC Network
- Stream link: SEC Network
How They Got Here
Tennessee is playing its first game in the SEC Tournament on Wednesday because they earned a first round bye by winning a share of the SEC Regular-Season Championship. The Vols went 22-8 in conference play and went 12-3 in the back half of SEC play.
Vanderbilt earned the eight-seed in the SEC Tournament after going 13-17 in SEC play in the regular season. The Commodores knocked off nine-seed Florida 6-3 on Tuesday to advance to the double-elimination portion of the tournament.
Projected Pitching Matchup
- Tennessee RHP Nate Snead (8-1, 2.67 ERA, 1.26 WHIP) vs. Vanderbilt LHP Devin Futrell (1-1, 7.71 ERA, 1.84 WHIP)
Bats To Know
Tennessee:
1B Blake Burke — .359/.418/.696, 16 HR, 40 EBH, 50 RBI, 21 BB, 36 K
2B Christian Moore — .388/.454/.808, 27 HR, 40 EBH, 60 RBI, 24 BB, 37 K
3B Billy Amick — .346/.409/.714, 18 HR, 31 EBH, 50 RBI, 17 BB, 38 K
RF Kavares Tears — .339/.407/.678, 16 HR, 28 EBH, 43 RBI, 35 BB, 50 K
LF Dylan Dreiling — .333/.448/.716, 17 HR, 34 EBH, 59 RBI, 37 BB, 46 K
Vanderbilt:
SS Jonathan Vastine — .303/.393/.551, 9 HR, 29 EBH, 37 RBI, 26 BB, 62 K, 11 SB
C Alan Espinal — .291/.399/.515, 10 HR, 24 EBH, 42 RBI, 30 BB, 74 K
2B RJ Austin — .318/.394/.455, 5 HR, 17 EBH, 51 RBI, 23 BB, 35 K, 25 SB
