Tennessee baseball’s back is against the wall as they face off against VCU in an elimination game in the Chapel Hill Regional on Saturday afternoon.
Despite the Vols being the higher seed, they will be the away team against VCU. Why? The higher seed is not automatically the home team in the NCAA Baseball Tournament.
Instead, rules dictate that the team who has been the home team the least amount of times in the event is the home team for any given game. Four-seed VCU was the road team against one-seed North Carolina on Friday while two-seed Tennessee was the home team against three-seed East Carolina.
That combination makes VCU the home team in the loser’s bracket matchup. If both teams have been the home team the same amount of times then the team that has been the visiting team more is the home team. If all is equal in both categories then the higher seed is the home team.
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If Tennessee defeats VCU then they will play the loser of North Carolina-ECU at noon ET on Sunday. The Vols would be the home team against East Carolina but the road team against North Carolina.
It’s a strange and dumb rule that the SEC also adhered to in its baseball tournament until scratching it last year and making the higher seeded team the home team in every game. But the NCAA still has not changed the rule and it will prove prevalent throughout the NCAA Tournament.
Tennessee fell into the loser’s bracket after losing to East Carolina 7-3 in 14 innings on Friday afternoon. Josh Elander is giving the ball to ace Tegan Kuhns against the Rams. VCU fell to No. 5 overall seed North Carolina 8-0 on Friday.
First pitch between Tennessee and VCU is at noon ET on Saturday afternoon. Mike Monaco and Ben McDonald are on the call for ESPN.
