Tennessee baseball has work to do if it wants to host postseason games at Lindsey Nelson Stadium this season.
The Vols are heading into the SEC tournament outside the projected top 16 seeds, a ranking which affords the team the right to host a regional and potential super regional. UT (41-15) opens the SEC tournament against either No. 9 Alabama (40-15) or No. 16 Missouri (16-38) on Wednesday (10:30 a.m. ET, SEC Network) in Hoover, Alabama.
Here is where the Vols are projected to play in the postseason:
Tennessee baseball is projected to be a No. 2 seed
The Tennessean’s Aria Gerson projects Tennessee to be in the Chapel Hill Regional, which would be hosted by No. 4 national seed North Carolina. The Vols are the No. 2 seed in the regional along with No. 3 Oklahoma State and No. 4 Miami (Ohio).
Gerson projects the Chapel Hill Regional to be paired with the Tuscaloosa Regional and No. 13 national seed Alabama.
D1 Baseball has the Vols as the No. 2 seed in the Atlanta Regional with host Georgia Tech, the No. 16 national seed. Arizona State is the No. 3 seed and Columbia is the No. 4 seed. The Atlanta Regional is paired with the Austin Regional and No. 1 overall seed Texas.
Tennessee has hosted an NCAA regional three times under Tony Vitello
Tennessee is familiar with hosting in the postseason, having hosted three times in the past four seasons.
UT was the No. 1 overall seed in 2022 and 2024. It was the No. 3 seed in 2021, hosting for the first since 2005. Tennessee also hosted a super regional in all three seasons as a national seed. It beat LSU in the 2021 Knoxville Super Regional, lost to Notre Dame in the 2022 super and beat Evansville in the 2024 super regional.
Tennessee baseball has historic postseason success under Tony Vitello
Tennessee is on the best postseason run in program history under Vitello.
The Vols have reached the College World Series three times in the past four seasons, including when they won the program’s first national title. UT became the first team in SEC history to win 60 games when it topped Texas A&M in the three-game College World Series finals.
Tennessee reached Omaha in 2021 for its first trip under Vitello. It went back in 2023, when it was 44-22 and won a game in the CWS for the first time since 2001. It reached the NCAA Tournament in 2019 for the first time since 2005.
Mike Wilson covers University of Tennessee athletics. Email him at michael.wilson@knoxnews.com and follow him on X @ByMikeWilson or Bluesky @bymikewilson.bsky.social. If you enjoy Mike’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it.