For the second time in three seasons, Tennessee baseball is the SEC Regular-Season Champions. The Vols clinched a share of the regular season title along with Kentucky after the Wildcats dropped their regular season finale against Vanderbilt and Tennessee knocked off South Carolina on Saturday afternoon.
Both teams posted a 22-8 SEC record and split the SEC Championship according to the conference. Tennessee wins the tiebreaker and will be the one-seed in next week’s SEC Tournament since they won two out of three games over Kentucky last month in Lexington.
The Vols dropped two out of three games at Alabama to open up SEC play and responded by winning their final nine conference series. Tennessee swept series against LSU, Missouri and South Carolina while taking two out of three over Ole Miss, Georgia, Auburn, Kentucky, Florida and Vanderbilt.
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This is Tennessee’s fifth ever SEC Regular-Season Championship and its second in the last three years after the Vols won the regular series title in 2022 with a 25-5 SEC record. Tennessee last won the SEC before Tony Vitello when they won back-to-back SEC Championships in 1994 and 1995.
The Vols and Wildcats also earned a share of the SEC East Title. It’s Tennessee’s third SEC East Title in the last four years for Vitello’s squad. It’s also the last ever SEC East Title because the conference is banishing the division system once Oklahoma and Texas join the league next season.
Ironically, Tennessee won the SEC East in 2021 when they beat South Carolina and Kentucky beat Vanderbilt on the final day of the regular season to propel the Vols ahead of the Commodores. This year, it was Vanderbilt doing Tennessee a favor by knocking off Kentucky on the final day of the regular season.
The Vols are the one-seed in next week’s SEC Tournament in Hoover. Tennessee will open up play at the SEC Tournament at approximately 5:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday evening.
