If the Southeastern Conference baseball tournament began today instead of May 23, the Tennessee Volunteers would be on the outside looking in. And just to be clear, 12 of the league’s 14 schools make the field.
Beyond that, Tennessee was the last of those 12 schools to make last year’s tourney and was bounced in its opening game.
Nor is this an unfortunate blip in Dave Serrano’s five-plus seasons as head coach in Big Orange Country. With Serrano in charge, the Vols have never finished higher than fifth in the SEC East, never posted a better league mark than six games under .500 and never reached the NCAA tournament.
Given their conference numbers this spring, that isn’t likely to change. Now 26-21 overall and 7-17 in conference play after Saturday’s 8-3 loss at Kentucky, Tennessee mathematically could still make the SEC tourney, but its stay likely would be a short one again.
As has too often also become the case with the men’s basketball Vols, unless the Big Orange batsmen can win the league tourney crown at the Hoover Met just south of Birmingham, Ala., two weeks from today, there not only will be no NCAA bid, but Serrano will finish his sixth year on the job with scant arguments to justify a seventh season running the show. Especially when one considers this was supposed to be his make-or-break year.