Tony Vitello’s Volunteers suffered a major setback last weekend when they lost their three-game series to Vanderbilt, 2-1. Tennessee dropped to seventh place in the SEC, while the Commodores are now tied with Georgia for fourth place.
Tennessee Might Not Be a National Seed
The elephant in the room is that there is only one three-game series left to end the regular season and begin the SEC Tournament. Therefore, this result could determine whether or not Tennessee, the defending College World Series (CWS) champion, will be one of the 16 national seeds.
The issue was highlighted in a post on X by Kendall Rogers, co-owner of the respected media outlet D1Baseball:
Massive road series win for @VandyBoys, beating Tennessee 7-5, is the series finale in Knoxville. That suddenly makes the final series of the year in Fayetteville very important for the #Vols. Might be tough to stay in the Top 16 losing six of last seven series.
— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogers) May 12, 2025
The future does not look promising, as the Vols’ final three-game series will be against the Razorbacks in Arkansas. This is none other than the team currently ranked second in the SEC and widely considered one of the best in the NCAA.
Tennessee has lost five of their last six three-game series. They lost to Texas A&M in early April, beat Ole Miss a week later, but then dropped four in a row to Kentucky, LSU, Auburn and Vanderbilt.
Logically, the tension on Tony Vitello’s team is so thick it can be cut with a knife, and it was palpable in Sunday’s 7-5 Vanderbilt win.
After left-hander Ethan McElvain struck out Canon Peebles for the Commodores’ 27th out of the game, the Tennessee players didn’t take too kindly to the way their opponents celebrated the victory. Words were exchanged between members of both teams and both dugouts were emptied.
HEATED exchange at the end of the #Vols and Vanderbilt series. pic.twitter.com/MOA7sn0PyU
— Paige Dauer (@PaigeDauerFDP) May 12, 2025
Fortunately, tempers cooled and there were no major problems. In fact, Vitello downplayed the whole thing:
“Yeah it’s overrated,” Vitello said, according to Vols Wire. “…That’s blown out of proportion. If anything, people that were watching for the first part, and then, I don’t know if the second part was televised, saw a super regional type game or a playoff type atmosphere on the field, and they made more plays than we did.”
KEEP READING: 7 Best College Baseball Teams That Didn’t Win the College World Series
With only three regular-season games remaining, Vanderbilt is ranked 9th in the NCAA Division I rankings, while Tennessee is 17th. If the Vols do not improve their ranking, they will be forced to play regionals at a rival stadium.
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