NCAA Baseball Bracket Projections: No. 1 Tennessee headed for one of the top seeds
Tennessee Baseball has been the No. 1-ranked team in the country for just over 10 days. Now, with just two days left in the regular season, the Vols are headed toward one of the top seeds in the postseason.
Entering the weekend series with South Carolina, the final series of the regular season, Tennessee (44-10, 20-8 SEC) was projected by D1Baseball.com as the No. 2 national seed in the NCAA Tournament while Baseball America had the Vols as the No. 3 national seed.
Both outlets had Kentucky as the No. 1 overall seed while North Carolina was the No. 2 in Baseball America’s projection. D1Baseball had West Virginia (No. 2), Xavier (No. 3) and Bryant (No. 4) in the Knoxville Regional and Baseball America had Tennessee hosting Louisiana Tech (No. 2), Indiana (No. 3) and Wright State (No. 4).
Vols open South Carolina series with 9-3 win
Tennessee started the South Carolina series Thursday with a 9-3 win over the Gamecocks at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. Game 2 is scheduled for a 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time start Friday in Knoxville and the series wraps up with a 1 p.m. ET start Saturday in the regular-season finale.
Christian Moore led off the bottom of the first with his 25th home run of the season, breaking the previous single-season home record of 24 set by Sonny Cortez in 1998. Moore added his 26th home run of the season in the third inning.
The Vols are looking for a ninth straight series win to end the regular-season schedule, a streak that started at home against Ole Miss in March and has included series wins over Georgia, Auburn, LSU, Kentucky, Missouri, Florida and Vanderbilt.
Tennessee Baseball’s postseason history under Tony Vitello
Tony Vitello led Tennessee back to college baseball’s postseason for the first time since 2005 with a 40-win season 2019, his second year on the job.
Tennessee was sent to the Chapel Hill Regional, hosted by North Carolina, where the Vols lost 6-1 to Liberty to start the NCAA Tournament. They bounced back with a 10-3 win over UNC Wilmington and a 6-5 win over Liberty before being eliminated by UNC in a 5-2 loss.
In 2021, after the COVID pandemic cancelled the 2020 season, Tennessee won 50 games and went back to the College World Series for the first time since 2005. The Vols beat Wright State and eliminated Liberty in the Knoxville Regional then swept LSU in the Knoxville Super Regional. Tennessee went 0-2 in Omaha, losing to No. 8 Virginia then No. 2 Texas.
The Vols won 57 games in 2022 and beat Alabama State, Campbell and Georgia Tech in Regional Play, but were upset by Notre Dame in the Knoxville Super Regional.
Tennessee’s 44-win team last season advanced out of the Clemson Regional, beating Charlotte and Clemson, then came back from a game down in the Southern Miss Super Regional to go back to Omaha for the second time under Vitello. In Omaha the Vols lost to LSU 6-3, bounced back with a 6-4 win over Stanford but were sent home after a 5-0 loss to LSU.
