Tennessee baseball hosts Vanderbilt this weekend at Lindsey Nelson Stadium in what is a critical three-game series for Tony Vitello’s club. Not only are the Vols looking to snap out of their ongoing struggles, having lost four of the last five series and three straight at home, but they are currently on the outside looking in of a top eight seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Securing one of the top eight seeds in the field of 64 would allow the Vols to host a super regional in Knoxville if they were to advance through the opening weekend of the tournament. Tennessee is currently projected by D1Baseball to be one of the 16 regional hosts, but the publication does not currently project UT as a top eight seed.
D1Baseball forecasts the Volunteers as the No. 9 seed in this week’s Field of 64 Projections. Vanderbilt is listed just ahead of the Vols at No. 8. In this projection, the in-state rivals would potentially square off against one another in Nashville with a trip to the Men’s College World Series on the line.
“In terms of significant changes to the top eight seeds in our projections, there are three changes to the top eight national seeds,” D1Baseball wrote Tuesday. “Tennessee, Clemson and UC Irvine moved out of the top eight, while Georgia, Auburn and Vanderbilt took those spots. Georgia continues to have the top RPI in college baseball, Auburn has a robust resume and is coming off a road series win over Tennessee and Vanderbilt is coming off a home series win over Alabama.”
Tennessee would host No. 2-seed Wake Forest in D1’s latest projection. The Knoxville Regional would also feature No. 3 East Tennessee State and No. 4 Kent State. Regional weekend is scheduled to begin on Friday, May 30 and run through Monday, June 2.
14 of the 16 schools in the SEC are projected to make the NCAA Tournament. Texas (No. 1), Arkansas (No. 2), LSU (No.4), Georgia (No. 5), Auburn (No. 6) and Vanderbilt (No. 8) are all predicted to be top eight seeds, while Tennessee is the only other team currently projected as a top 16 seed.
Ole Miss, Alabama and Oklahoma are all projected to travel during regional weekend as a two seed, while Mississippi State, Texas A&M, Kentucky and Florida are all considered a No. 3 seed at this point. Kentucky is considered one of the last four teams in the field.
The Defending Champs
Tennessee will punch its sixth straight ticket to the NCAA Tournament when the bracket is released during the selection show on Monday, May 26. Super regionals will be held Friday, June 6 through Monday, June 9. The 77th College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska will begin on Friday, June 13.
Vitello led Tennessee to its first national championship in its seventh appearance at the Men’s College World Series last season. It was UT’s first appearance in the CWS Finals since 1951 when it finished as the runner-up to Oklahoma.
Tennessee became the first No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament to win the national championship since Miami did so in 1999. UT also became the first SEC team to reach the 60-win mark in a single season and just the fourth conference team to win the SEC regular season title, SEC Tournament title and the NCAA Men’s College World Series in the same year.
Vitello’s first national championship during his seventh season as head coach at Tennessee came in his fifth NCAA Tournament appearance, and in its third trip to Omaha in four seasons. UT is the only SEC program and one of just two teams nationally (Virginia) to have appeared in the College World Series in three of the last four seasons (2021, 2023, 2024). Tennessee just completed its first back-to-back trips.
Tennessee is 27-11 in five NCAA Tournament appearances under Vitello. His 27 NCAA Tournament wins are tied for the most in UT history with Rod Delmonico, who is the program’s all-time wins leader (699). Delmonico went 27-19 in eight tournament appearances to lead the Vols to the College World Series three times (1995, 2001, 2005).
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