Tennessee’s baseball season would qualify as significantly entertaining even if the Volunteers didn’t play another game.
Twenty consecutive wins out of the gate. A No. 1 ranking at some point of a season for the third time in four years. Five straight series losses to conclude the Southeastern Conference’s regular season, and a 12-inning comeback victory over top-seeded Texas at last week’s SEC tournament.
The Vols do get to play more games, however, as the NCAA tournament’s No. 14 overall seed in the Knoxville Regional.
“It’s an achievement to earn a regional, and it’s very difficult to do,” Tennessee coach Tony Vitello said during a news conference this week, “but the biggest thing may be that we were on the road for 12 days. The guys needed to be back. We played a couple of extra-inning games in there. We’ve played some long games this year, and that was a taxing trip.
“It was a valuable one for our guys, but it’s been important to sleep in our beds and use our own weight room.”