Tennessee’s Road to Omaha: Vols’ seeding is set as Vitello discusses Regional matchups

The first few turns on Tennessee’s Road to Omaha are officially set.

Fresh off an impressive run in the 2021 SEC Baseball Tournament, the SEC East champions will host a regional in Knoxville this weekend at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

It will be Tennessee’s first regional appearance since 2019, but it will also notch the Vols’ second regional appearance since 2005.

Tennessee (46-15) is listed as the No. 3 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, and it will face 4-seed Wright State (35-11) on Friday at 6 p.m. ET. The Raiders beat UT twice in three games last year at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

The other two teams in the Knoxville regional are Duke and Liberty. Those teams will square off on Friday at noon in a matchup that precedes Tennessee-Wright State.

Each seed and matchup was announced on the NCAA Selection Show on Monday on ESPN2.

The losers of each Friday game will face off at noon on Saturday in Game 3, while each Friday winner will play that afternoon at 6 p.m. in Game 4.

The Game 3 winner will face the Game 4 loser on Sunday at 2 p.m., while the Game 3 loser will face the Game 4 winner the same afternoon at 6 p.m.

If needed, the winner and loser of Sunday’s 6 p.m. game will play again at 1 p.m. on Monday since the Regional is double-elimination format.

Grabbing ‘each other’s attention’

During Monday media availability, Tennessee coach Tony Vitello noted each visitor’s history and how that could shape this weekend’s games.

“Three programs that are well-coached,” he said of Duke, Liberty and Wright State. “Programs that are very strong, that are very, very familiar with postseason play.”

“Clearly a group that, each of us will have each other’s attention. Certainly a highly competitive group that, that’s why we’re in the league we are.”

In conjunction with Vitello’s analysis, this draw is particularly tough for a Tennessee team that made quite a case for itself in the regular season, as well as the SEC Tournament in Hoover. Before Sunday’s championship loss to Arkansas, Tennessee rebounded from a 3-2 loss to Alabama by outscoring opponents 27-2 in three games.

I feel like @Vol_Baseball kind of got hosed with this field. @WSURaidergang has a high RPI and is a really solid team, @DukeBASE is the hottest team in the #ACC outside of UVA. Makes little sense IMO. But TV will use this as motivation.
— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogers) May 31, 2021

4 of the top 36 teams will be in Knoxville regional 🤔🤯🤷🏻‍♂️
— Chris Burke (@ChrisBurke02) May 31, 2021

But even with a difficult road to Omaha, the Vols’ situation certainly beats the alternatives: fighting to get in (such as Tennessee’s 2019 regional appearance), or not making the tournament at all.

“We kind of told (the guys), ‘You don’t want to put your future in anyone else’s hands, whether it be during a game or a season or your career or just in general,” Vitello said Monday.

The Vols’ coach also mentioned how loose the team was on Monday, as players were “playing hacky-sack two minutes before the thing started.”

If Tennessee advances through this weekend’s Knoxville Regional, it will host the winner of the Eugene (Ore.) Regional next weekend in a Super Regional.

The Ducks are the top seed in Eugene, but LSU, Gonzaga and Central Connecticut will also be competing for a chance to advance to Knoxville.

The Super Regional winner would advance to the College World Series, which Tennessee hasn’t done since 2005.

Bringing ‘amazing’ environment home

As mentioned after Sunday’s loss to Arkansas, Tennessee learned a lot about itself this week — especially in an SEC Championship atmosphere that the Vols’ fans helped to create.

“The major thing for me was, that Vol fan base is amazing,” Vitello said Monday. “I don’t want to get into a tit-for-tat with Arkansas. Their fan base was always great there, but ours matched it, and it made for an incredible stage.”

“During that anthem, I felt like a middle linebacker that could rip somebody’s head off, as did our players,” he added. “For our guys to handle all that and play well for most of that game was a good point.”

That point should lend itself well for this coming weekend. Tickets for Friday’s game have already sold out on AllVols.com, as Tennessee prepares to begin its gauntlet with home-field advantage.

“These kids all grow up dreaming about this tournament, and the possibilities that can come from it,” Vitello said. “So you need to kind of temper some of those (emotions) and just go play ball.”

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