The Tennessee Volunteers flourished during a regular season that contained a 42-14 overall record, a 20-10 Southeastern Conference mark and the program’s first SEC East baseball title since 1997.
Next up is the SEC tournament in Hoover, Alabama, where Tony Vitello’s Vols would like to create more positive results. Tennessee’s last triumph at the league tournament amazingly was a 6-4 victory over Vanderbilt in 2007, with six consecutive defeats having followed, including a 5-3 loss to Auburn two years ago in Vitello’s second season.
Tennessee is the second seed at this year’s 12-team extravaganza and will open play Wednesday afternoon (2 on the SEC Network) against 10th-seeded Alabama, which routed seventh-seeded South Carolina 9-3 Tuesday afternoon.
“This tournament is a great precursor to what the regionals can bring to you,” Vitello said Tuesday on a Zoom call. “There are a lot more distractions. Using a much grander stage as a comparison, you hear before the Super Bowl that the off week is used to get all the riffraff out of the way or whatever you want to call it, and then you focus on the game. Ultimately, what we want for our guys is to continue to play well.
“The one thing about playing your best down here is that you’ve got to be able to handle the heat and the humidity. It’s been a mild spring, so that will be a challenge for every team here.”
Sixth-seeded Florida opened the SEC tournament Tuesday morning with a 4-1 downing of 11th-seeded Kentucky, and eighth-seeded Georgia collected a 4-1 defeat of ninth-seeded LSU on Tuesday night. LSU was eliminated without a win in the SEC tournament for the first time since 2005.
Tennessee, which has a first-round bye for the first time since 2005, won two of three from the Crimson Tide when they met in Tuscaloosa in early April. After losing the opener 7-4, the Vols outlasted Alabama 8-4 in 11 innings and then 9-8 in the finale.
Bolstering the Vols entering tournament play has been their consistent success away from Lindsey Nelson Stadium. Tennessee’s 16-5 record in true road games during the regular season was the best of any SEC team, and the Vols won all five of their league series on the road for the first time in program history.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.