The wait is briefly over, and Tennessee baseball can temporarily relax as it knows where the opening round of the postseason will be played.
Lindsey Nelson Stadium has been selected as a 2025 NCAA Regional host site.
After a productive week in the SEC Tournament, the Vols will officially be at home for regional play. Tennessee (43-16, 18-15 SEC) played three top-15 RPI games and came away with wins over the 4th and 13th-ranked squads. It suffered one loss to the top-ranked RPI team in Vanderbilt.
“I think it would be great for them, and it would be great for our kids,” head coach Tony Vitello said. “We are not in control of it. We will let those people that are fully qualified sit in the room and diagnose that.”
The fully qualified people decided that Tennessee was a proper fit to hoist a top-16 national seed.
That landed the Vols with an RPI ranking of 11 and a host site for the fourth time in the last five seasons. They are one of 16 hosts as announced by the NCAA on Sunday. Tennessee’s national seed, alongside the rest of the teams playing in the regional, will be announced on Monday as part of the NCAA Selection Show, which is slated for noon ET on ESPN2.
Regionals are set to begin Friday, May 30, and run through Monday, June 2. It is a double-elimination bracket featuring a four-team field.
“It would be awesome,” outfielder Hunter Ensley said after Saturday’s loss. “Obviously, love playing in that stadium. To be honest with you, it doesn’t really matter whether we’re home or away. I’m just looking forward to competing a few more times.”
Prior to the 2021 season, the Vols had gone on a 17-year cold spell without hosting a regional. Ever since, they have hosted a Knoxville Regional in 2021, 2022, 2024 and now 2025 with No. 1 national seeds coming twice.
Tennessee has not lost a home regional since 1994. The Vols have hosted six regionals in Knoxville since then, compiling a 19-1 record. Their only loss came in the 2001 regional final to Wake Forest.
Last season, Tennessee escaped its regional with wins over Northern Kentucky, Indiana and Southern Miss. The Vols scampered through the winner’s bracket, going without a loss in the regionals.
It set the tone for Tennessee’s national championship run.
Meanwhile, after a hot start with one loss in non-conference play, the Vols’ title defense took a turn. Despite starting with back-to-back SEC series wins, the season flipped around with an inability to win rubber matches.
Tennessee closed the regular season with series losses in six of the last seven weekends. The lone series win came on April 13 against Ole Miss.
“The thing this team needs to do is when we have a three-game set is win a series, and we are going to have to earn the right to have another series or three-game set because a regional is a little bit of a different animal,” Vitello said.
Tennessee will shift its focus to Monday to learn the rest of the Knoxville Regional field.
