Tennessee Baseball Wins First SEC Tournament Championship in 27 Years
HOOVER, Ala. -- The top-ranked baseball Volunteers are the 2022 SEC Tournament Champions, as Tennessee knocked off the Florida Gators 8-5 in the championship game on Sunday afternoon.
The win gives Tennessee the tournament title to go along with their regular-season SEC Championship, making for a clean Big Orange sweep. Tennessee was in the SEC Tournament Championship game a year ago but lost to Arkansas 7-2. This year, the Vols did not lose a game, beating Vanderbilt, LSU, Kentucky and Florida by a combined 25 runs to take the trophy.
The tournament win is the first for the Vols since 1995, the same year they last won the regular-season title.
According to Peter Burns of ESPN, Tennessee became the first team in the history of the SEC to win the SEC Basketball Tournament and the SEC Baseball Tournament in the same year.
After the Vols won the regular-season title, Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello declared it as another box checked this season. Now, Vitello and the BaseVols check off another as they continue their run as one of the best college baseball teams in history.
"I think at the end of the 30 games, you want to have five or six little things checked," Vitello said after Tennessee won at least a share of the SEC regular-season title. "And if you can somehow get to co or outright champs, you've checked almost all of them. We've checked a lot of boxes up to this point."
In addition to the regular-season title, the Vols have gotten off to the best start in SEC play on two separate occasions, had a 23-game winning streak, set a program record with nine series sweeps and had a pitcher, Ben Joyce, throw the fastest pitch in college baseball history, just to name a few high points of their historic season.
Up next for the BaseVols is the NCAA Regional Tournament. The Vols will host a regional in Knoxville and look to check another box by advancing. The three teams Tennessee will host will be announced later Sunday evening.
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