Tennessee baseball has moved back to a regional host in the latest Field of 64 projections from D1Baseball. The Vols are the No. 15 overall seed hosting two-seed West Virginia, three-seed Miami and four-seed Murray State in a potential Knoxville Regional.
According to the projection, Tennessee would face the winner of the Fayetteville Regional in a road super regional if they get out of the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Arkansas, Kansas, Creighton and Little Rock occupy the Fayetteville Regional.
The Tennessean’s latest projection has the Vols as the No. 11 overall seed. Tennessee is matched up with potential six-seed Georgia in the Athens Super Regional.
Baseball America has Tennessee as the No. 14 overall seed hosting West Virginia, ETSU and Bryant. The Vols are matched up with potentially No. 3 seed Vanderbilt in the Nashville Super Regional.
Tennessee entered the SEC Tournament with a 41-15 (16-14 SEC) record and on the outside looking in of potentially hosting a regional. The Vols had a borderline hosting resume but their poor end to the season, five straight and six out of seven series losses, kept them on the outside looking in.
But Tennessee has started out postseason play with a bang, earning a 15-10 victory over Alabama in the tournament’s second round on Wednesday before coming from behind to upset top-seed Texas 7-5 in 12 innings on Thursday.
It’s unclear whether the Vols need to win again on Saturday to remain a top 16 national seed. Tennessee has done seriously positive work to its RPI this week and is all the way up to No. 10 following its win over Texas.
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With the win over the Longhorns, Tennessee is back in the SEC Tournament Semifinals for the fourth time in the last five years. The Vols made it to the championship game in the previous three seasons while winning the tournament in 2022 and 2024.
Tennessee is looking for revenge against rival Vanderbilt in the semifinals Saturday afternoon. The Commodores took two out of three games in a hotly contested rivalry series in Knoxville earlier this month.
The good news for Tennessee in its quest to host a regional is that the Vols have now definitively pulled ahead of SEC foes Alabama and Florida. Both the Crimson Tide and Gators were borderline host teams before being eliminated on Wednesday.
The bad news is that borderline host teams in other conferences are still playing well. TCU and West Virginia are both alive in the Big 12 Tournament while Georgia Tech is alive in the ACC Tournament.
First pitch between Tennessee and Vanderbilt is at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday afternoon. The SEC Network is broadcasting the game.
The NCAA Tournament selection committee will reveal the 16 regional hosts on Sunday night before releasing the entire bracket on Monday at noon ET on ESPN2.
