Tennessee baseball is the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, as announced by ESPN on Monday. It is the second time in program history the Vols have been the No. 1 overall seed.
The Vols (50-11) were wildly predicted as the No. 1 overall seed, but sweep both the regular-season and tournament SEC titles solidified their top spot in the NCAA Tournament.
The road to Omaha will run through Knoxville, Tennessee.
The Knoxville regional will play host to Northern Kentucky (35-22), Indiana (32-24-1) and Southern Mississippi (41-18).
The Knoxville Regional is matched up with East Carolina’s (43-15) Greeneville Regional. The Greeneville Regional includes Evansville, VCU and Wake Forest. Former Tennessee pitcher Chase Burns plays for Wake Forest, setting up a possible match up between the two in Knoxville.
Tennessee was in an almost identical spot in 2022, sweeping both the regular-season and conference titles before being named the No. 1 seed. That team fell to Notre Dame in the Knoxville Super Regional, never making it to Omaha.
READ MORE: Tony Vitello, Vols react to winning SEC Tournament Championship
This year’s team wants to change that course, and return to the men’s College World Series for the second year in a row.
“I think it’s difficult for any team to win in the NCAA Tournament, and it’s also very difficult to win (the SEC) tournament because of the caliber of athlete that you’re surrounded by, and we were able to do that,” Vitello said. “Then to me, and I’m not trying to pat ourselves on the back.
“But one of the things I always thought as a little kid, big sports fan, Big Ten baseball, I don’t think they had a tournament back then but it was admonish impressive for Indiana or Michigan to win the regular season because it’s a huge body of work. We were able to do that in one of the most competitive amateur lesion of any sport.”
Tennessee caps off successful 2024 season
Tennessee has won at least 50 games for the third time in four years. Before Vitello, Tennessee has won 50 or more games just twice in program history.
It continues a dominant run over the last four seasons, which has included three SEC East title, two SEC regular-season title and two SEC Tournament titles. The run has also included two trips to Omaha which can become three by then conclusion of the 2024 season.
Now the Vols have earned their second No. 1 overall seed over the same four-year span. With the to spot in the NCAA Tournament comes a “curse.”
Vitello didn’t bite on the curse conversation when asked following Tennessee’s SEC Tournament Championship win. He instead spoke on just how difficult it is to achieve what Tennessee has done, and that it is even harder to win in the NCAA Tournament.
“We’ll just have to go out there and win on Friday, whoever the committee wants us to play, and then we’ll see what’s going on on Saturday afternoon,” Vitello said. “If anything, at least you know it will be rowdy in Lindsey Nelson Stadium.”
