Tennessee earns No. 1 national seed for NCAA baseball tournament after sweeping SEC titles

Views: | Time:2024-06-03 17:06:22

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Tennessee, the Southeastern Conference regular-season and conference tournament champion and the consensus No. 1 team in the country for a month, on Monday was awarded the top national seed for the NCAA Tournament.

The 64-team tournament opens Friday with 16 double-elimination regionals. Winners advance to eight best-of-three super regionals. Those winners move on to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, beginning June 14.

The Volunteers haven’t lost consecutive games since mid-March and are the only team in the country to win 50 games three of the past four years. They will try to become the first No. 1 national seed to win the championship since Miami in 1999, the year the NCAA went to the current tournament structure.

Tennessee, which has reached two of the past three College World Series, come into regionals in the top 10 nationally in five offensive categories. The Vols’ 147 homers are most in the nation, and Christian Moore has 28 to lead five Vols players with at least 17. The pitching staff has a 3.83 ERA and ranks in the top five in four other categories.

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