Tennessee baseball is back in the NCAA Tournament for a seventh straight time with Josh Elander leading the Vols to the tournament in his first season as head coach.
The Vols landed as the two-seed overall seed in the Chapel Hill Regional. Tennessee is grouped with No. 5 overall seed North Carolina, three-seed East Carolina and four-seed VCU.
Josh Elander’s first Tennessee team will face East Carolina in its first game in the NCAA Tournament at noon on Friday. The ESPNU is broadcasting the game. The Vols will almost certainly have to face off against North Carolina at some point in the double-elimination tournament if they are going to advance to the super regionals.
The Vols do have a bit of postseason history with North Carolina, losing the 2019 Chapel Hill Regional but knocking off the Tar Heels in the 2024 College World Series.
If Tennessee does win the Chapel Hill Regional then they will face the winner of the College State Regional including No. 12 overall seed Texas A&M, USC, Texas State and Lamar.
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Tennessee is one of 12 SEC teams to make the 2026 NCAA Tournament including Arkansas, Georgia, Ole Miss, Auburn, Mississippi State, Texas, Kentucky, Alabama, Florida, Texas A&M and Oklahoma.
Tennessee enters the NCAA Tournament boasting a 38-20 (15-15 SEC) record. The Vols struggled at the start of the season after dropping a non conference series against Wright State.
Then the Vols struggled out the gates of SEC play, starting 4-8 in their first four series. But starting with a sweep of Mississippi State, the Vols went 11-7 over the next six weeks. Tennessee won three of its final four SEC series including against regional hosts Alabama and Texas.
Tennessee won five of its 10 SEC series. They swept Mississippi State while Vanderbilt swept them. The Vols remained .500 in SEC play by going 1-1 at this week’s SEC Tournament.
Tennessee has won its last five regionals, winning at home in 2021, 2022, 2024 and 2025 while winning the Clemson Regional in 2023. The Vols last failed to win a regional back in 2019 when they lost in the Chapel Hill Regional final.
