After defeating LSU in the SEC Tournament Championship on Sunday afternoon, Tennessee baseball turns its attention to the NCAA Tournament. The Vols won the SEC Regular Season and Tournament Championship.
Now they’re looking to advance to the College World Series and win a National Championship if they can return there for the third time in four seasons.
Tennessee enters the NCAA Tournament with a 50/49-10/11 (22-8 SEC) record and are poised to be the nation’s No. 1 seed for the second time in three seasons.
D1Baseball’s Field of 64 projections has Tennessee as the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament. In the projection, the Vols are hosting two-seed UC Irvine, three-seed Georgia Tech and four-seed Jackson State.
UC Irvine enters the NCAA Tournament with a 43-12 (22-8 Big West) record. Georgia Tech enters the NCAA Tournament with a 31-23 (15-15 ACC) record. Jackson State currently boasts a 36-19 (16-12 SWAC) record.
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In D1Baseball’s projections, Mississippi State is the No. 16 overall seed meaning the Vols would match up with the Bulldogs in the Super Regional if both teams won their regional. Other teams in the Starkville Regional include Southern Miss, Nicholls and Tulane in the projection.
Baseball America’s Projected Field of 64 also includes Tennessee as the No. 1 overall seed in the country. It also has the Vols hosting UC-Irvine as the two-seed and Jackson State as the four-seed in the Knoxville Regional with Evansville as their three-seed. Evansville enters the NCAA Tournament 35-20 (17-10 MVC).
While being the No. 1 seed speaks to how good of a season Tennessee has had, being the top seed has not been a good sign for college baseball teams. The No. 1 overall seed hasn’t won the National Championship since 1999 and Tennessee’s 2022 team lost in the Super Regional, failing to make it to the College World Series.
The official bracket is released tomorrow at noon ET as ESPN2 broadcasts the Selection Show. If Tennessee does land the No. 1 overall seed then they’ll look to buck the negative trend for the nation’s No. 1 overall seed.
