Tennessee turned in its second straight series win, taking two out of three over Ole Miss in the final regular season of SEC play. The Vols finished the regular season with a 38-18 record, including a 14-16 record in conference play.

Let’s look back at the exciting series and look forward to the SEC Tournament.

THREE OBSERVATIONS

1. Bullpen rebounds

Tennessee’s bullpen was relied on heavily in the final two games of the series against Ole Miss. If you told me that on Wednesday, I’d have said Tennessee is in trouble. After being a strength for most of the season, the group struggled mightily against Missouri and Florida.

However, this weekend saw the unit bounce back as they pitched 12.1 innings, all on Friday and Saturday.

In those 12.1 innings, the bullpen gave up only two runs while striking out six.

Camden Sewell had the difficult task of replacing Garrett Crochet after Crochet exited Friday’s game due to injury.

Sewell wasn’t at his best, walking three in his 2.2 innings, but his performance was solid as it steadied the Vols and allowed the offense to do its job and take the lead.

Sean Hunley’s resurgence has been critical for the Vols lately and he was good again this weekend. He gave up a run Friday but pitched again Saturday and was all around solid.

The pressure will be high on the usual bullpen guys in the coming weeks as it seems likely than Crochet won’t pitch again this season. If the Vols want to have a strong performance in Hoover and beyond those guys will need to perform at a high level.

2. Another strong weekend at the plate

While the pitching had sputtered a bit as of late, the Vols’ batting lineup has been excellent turning in good weekends against Missouri and Florida.

They continued that success this weekend, frequently finding the base paths against the Rebels. The bats weren’t as consistent top to bottom and struggled against Ole Miss’ starters the first time through the lineup, but they found ways to get runs and give the Vols a chance.

Andre Lipcius continued his hot streak this weekend, as the reigning SEC Player of the Week went 6-for-11 the plate with three RBIs and two walks. Lipcius turned in a strong regular season hitting over twice as many homers as he did as a sophomore. He ended the regular season hitting .307 with 16 home runs and 57 RBIs and earned himself a paycheck in the coming months.

The balance is the lineup wasn’t as good as last weekend, but a plethora of guys contributed with seven different Vols batting in a run.

Pete Derkay continues to play well at first and his bat was an asset this weekend as he drove in four runs going 4-for-10 and walking twice.

It seems doubtful that we’ll see Luc Lipcius this season and Max Ferguson’s return is still questionable, so the Vols will continue to rely on Derkay down the stretch.

Earlier in the season, it felt like the pitching would have to carry Tennessee to wins every outing, but that is no longer the case. Tennessee’s bats can carry the team at times and is a major reason the Vols are staring down a regional birth.

3. Vitello deserves all praise

Let’s take a step back for a second and admire the work Tony Vitello has done in his first two seasons as a head coach.

Vitello has brought winning baseball back to a program that hadn’t seen it in a long time. Let’s look at all the things this program has accomplished this season.

The Vols will play in the SEC Tournament next week for the first time since 2016. The Vols will be a single digit seed in that tournament for the first time since 2007. Tennessee finished third in the SEC East. The Vols have just finished third or better three times this century, and more than likely Tennessee will go to its first NCAA Tournament since 2005.

That’s a pretty impressive feat for Vitello in just his second season.

Vitello will be the first to tell you that the program has a long way to go to get to where it wants to be, but this season was a large step in the right direction.

Credit goes to the buy in from players and to Frank Anderson, Josh Ehlander, and Ross Kivett for their recruiting of many key members of this team and the development of others.

With no disrespect to Tim Corbin, Steve Bieser, and Dave Van Horn, but Vitello would be my vote for SEC Coach of the Year.

TWO QUESTIONS

Have the Vols locked up a NCAA Tournament spot?

I’ve long believed that a 14-16 SEC record would get Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament, and after this weekend I believe that remains true.

The Vols were helped out this weekend as Missouri got swept and Auburn dropped two out of three to LSU. All of a sudden, Tennessee might be ahead of Auburn and Missouri in the eyes of the committee thanks to its strong non-conference schedule.

The committee has been reluctant to stack the bracket with SEC teams, so pulling ahead of one or both of those teams would give them even more cushion.

Either way, I think Tennessee has done enough work to end one of the longest NCAA Tournament droughts in the power five conferences.

A win in or two in Hoover could help them get a No. 2 seed instead of a No. 3 seed with a more favorable draw, but Tennessee should be in the field of 64 no matter what.

How does Vitello handle the pitching?

With the pressure off the Vols as they head to Hoover Tuesday, I wouldn’t expect the Vols to throw Garrett Stallings, who threw another gem this weekend.

The turnaround would be quicker than normal for Stallings, and I don’t think they want to make him do that for the first time without having too.

Also, with a matchup with the league’s best lineup, Vanderbilt, looming with a win I think the Vols will roll the dice with a struggling Tigers team.

To make a deep run in Hoover, the Vols would need to win that Vanderbilt game and the reality of the situation is that Tennessee won’t have a very good chance to win without one of its best guys on the mound, and with Crochet unavailable that has to be Stallings.

Looking at Tuesday, the question becomes who starts for Tennessee? The three most likely choices are Sewell, Hunley, and Will Neely, who ironically got the start for the Vols the last time they were in Hoover.

Sewell and Hunley both pitched this weekend, but neither threw a ton of innings so I’d think both are options.

Neely didn’t pitch any this weekend, but the staff has seemed to cool on him recently so I’m not sure if he’ll be the first choice

If I had to guess I’d say Sewell will get the ball, but I could see this one going in a couple directions.

ONE PREDICTION

Tennessee beats Auburn Tuesday

Auburn swept the Vols in the opening weekend of SEC play way back in March, but the Tigers have since struggled.

Injuries have hurt Auburn and they aren’t playing at the same level they were earlier the season.

The sweep also came at Auburn, and Tennessee was in all three games before uncharacteristic mistakes cost them wins.

The Tigers are just 4-8 in their last 12 conference games and have relied on pitcher’s Tanner Burns and Jack Owen, neither of which will be available Tuesday.

Tennessee is playing better baseball right now and will have a bad taste in its mouth from how the series went down from earlier in the season. I think the Vols will get the win.