KNOXVILLE - It's been another disappointing baseball season for Tennessee, but the Volunteers manufactured some late-inning drama this past weekend to extend their season by at least one game.
Coach Dave Serrano's club rallied to score three runs in the ninth inning both Friday and Saturday to win the final two games of the regular season's final series at Georgia.
The two victories, coupled with Vanderbilt's sweep of Auburn, allowed Tennessee to snap up the 12th and final seed in this week's Southeastern Conference baseball tournament.
The Vols face LSU tonight (9, SEC Network) in the single-elimination round of the tournament in Hoover, Ala.
"For my guys, I'm very excited for them," Serrano said during the SEC teleconference Monday morning.
"We had a tough feat to get through in the last weekend. We knew we needed some help, and luckily for us Vanderbilt did some work for us and we took care of the part of our business by winning two out of three. We knew going into that series that we needed to sweep for sure to get in or needed two out of three (with) some help, and that happened.
"I have bigger goals than just getting to the SEC tournament for this program - I always have - but to know that this is the first time our program has been three consecutive years to this tournament in the last 20 years, I'm very proud to say that."
Tennessee began the season ranked 25th by D1 Baseball, but the Vols finished 29-27 overall and 9-21 in the SEC to finish 12th in the league for the second straight year.
At the other end of the spectrum is top-seeded Mississippi State, which won its first regular-season title since 1989.
Mississippi State's ace is former Sequatchie County standout Dakota Hudson, who in 14 starts is 9-3 with a 2.29 earned run average and has 101 strikeouts in 98 1/3 innings. In last Thursday's 7-0 win over Arkansas, Hudson pitched a complete game with 10 strikeouts. He has allowed one earned run in his last 26 1/3 innings.
Hudson's ninth win of the season against the Razorbacks earned him SEC pitcher of the week honors on Monday, and Tennessee second baseman Nick Senzel, a potential top-five pick in next month's major league draft, was the league's player of the week after doubling five times in four games and driving in three runs in the finale against Georgia.
That victory temporarily prolonged Serrano's tenure at Tennessee.
The two-time College World Series coach is in the final year of his original five-year contract, and his future beyond this season is uncertain. Serrano guided both California-Irvine and Cal State-Fullerton to the CWS, making him one of Tennessee's most impressive hires in any sport in recent years, but he's not been able to get the Vols off the ground.
In five seasons under Serrano, Tennessee is 130-137 overall and 48-99 in the SEC with zero NCAA regional appearances.
The Vols followed up a series win against Vanderbilt by going 4-9 in the next 13 games before winning the Georgia series.
"There's been a lot of frustration at times," Serrano said, "with the way we've played but the one consistent thing that I will say about this group is they have never quit when there's been many times throughout this year, especially the tail end, when they could have mailed it in, and they didn't.
"To see how we won those games with our backs against the wall knowing what was on the line in Friday's and Saturday's games, I think, tells you everything about the character of these kids. They're playing to keep wearing the uniform, and I don't see anything changing tomorrow night."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.