Advertisement
Published May 18, 2024
2024 SEC Baseball Tournament set, Tennessee No. 1 seed
circle avatar
Noah Taylor  •  VolReport
Managing Editor
Twitter
@ByNoahTaylor

The SEC baseball regular season concluded on Saturday with Tennessee clinching a share of the title for the second time in three seasons.

The Vols (46-10, 22-8 SEC) will be the No. 1 seed at the 2024 SEC Tournament at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in Hoover, Alabama next week, locking up the top spot after completing a series sweep of South Carolina.

TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM

Kentucky, which led in the league standings for the last three weeks, was in position to win the championship outright entering the weekend before dropping its series finale against Vanderbilt to share with Tennessee.

The Vols won nine of their 10 conference series, including nine-straight to end the season. Among Tennessee's series victories was taking two of three from Kentucky in Lexington last month, giving the Vols the tie-breaker in deciding the 1-seed.

"(Winning the SEC), that's a lot to take in. That's very difficult to do," Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello said. "Congrats to anybody in this league that finished with a winning record... I'm proud of our guys. There wasn't a lot of chatter about any of that stuff going on. I didn't hear any scores or anything going like that.

"The guys were just focused on the task at hand. And if you do that, if you have the right approach, more times than not, the result will work itself out."

MORE FROM VOLREPORT: Tennessee baseball clinches share of SEC title

Tennessee last won the regular season and tournament titles in 2022, but the Vols were bounced from the tournament in one game last season before fighting their way through road NCAA regional and super regional games to reach the College World Series for the second time under Vitello.

Tennessee is guaranteed at least two games this season, earning a bye and automatic berth in the double elimination rounds.

"We're in a different spot than we were last year for sure," Vitello said. "And then this year's unique under its own. And I guess what I'm getting at is we've already met as a coaching staff and there's certain things we want to make sure we accomplish while we're there. So, you'd like to win, but we'd also like to check those boxes."

2024 SEC Tournament match ups, times, TV assignments

Tennessee and Kentucky weren't the only teams that needed to settle a tie-breaker on Saturday.

The final weekend of the regular season had a number of match ups league-wide that would determine SEC Tournament seeding, including Alabama and Auburn, which ran into early Sunday morning.

The tournament will begin Tuesday with the 6-12 seeds playing in a single-elimination format and then move to double elimination on Wednesday before going back to single elimination in the semifinals on Saturday.

The first 16 games will air on SEC Network with the championship game slated for Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

Tuesday, May 21

GAME 1: No. 6 Georgia vs. No. 11 LSU (10:30 a.m.)

GAME 2: No. 7 Alabama vs. No. 10 South Carolina (TBD)

GAME 3: No. 8 Vanderbilt vs. No. 9 Florida (5:30 p.m.)

GAME 4: No. 5 Mississippi State vs. No. 12 Ole Miss (TBD)

Wednesday, May 22

GAME 5: No. 3 Kentucky vs. Game 1 winner (10:30 a.m.)

GAME 6: No. 2 Arkansas vs. Game 2 winner (TBD)

GAME 7: No. 1 Tennessee vs. Game 3 winner (5:30 p.m.)

GAME 8: No. 4 Texas A&M vs. Game 4 winner (TBD)

Thursday, May 23

GAME 9: Game 5 loser vs. Game 6 loser (10:30 a.m.)

GAME 10: Game 7 loser vs. Game 8 loser (TBD)

GAME 11: Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner (5:30 p.m.)

GAME 12: Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner (TBD)

Friday, May 24

GAME 13: Game 9 winner vs. Game 11 loser (4 p.m.)

GAME 14: Game 10 winner vs. Game 12 loser (TBD)

Saturday, May 25

GAME 15: Game 13 winner vs. Game 11 winner (1 p.m.)

GAME 16: Game 14 winner vs. Game 12 winner (TBD)

Sunday, May 26

SEC TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: Game 15 winner vs. Game 16 winner (3 p.m.)

*All times Eastern

–––––

– TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM.

– ENJOY VOLREPORT WITH A PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION.

– SUBSCRIBE TO THE VOLREPORT YOUTUBE CHANNEL.

– FOLLOW VOLREPORT ON TWITTER: @TennesseeRivals, @ByNoahTaylor, @RyanTSylvia, @Dale_Dowden, @ShayneP_Media, @CalebSisk_.

–––––

Advertisement
Advertisement