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Tennessee baseball is chasing its 1st SEC Tournament title since 1995 as the Vols head to Hoover, Alabama, as the No. 2 seed.
UT gained the second seed as the SEC East champions and will play Wednesday (somewhere around 2 p.m. ET) against the winner of No. 7 South Carolina and No. 10 Alabama.
Right here is what to know about the Vols heading into the SEC Match:
Tennessee baseball received the SEC East for the to start with time because 1997
The Vols clinched the SEC East title for the 1st time because 1997 on the final day of the typical period.
Tennessee topped South Carolina, 5-4, taking two of 3 from the Gamecocks to complete 20-10 in the SEC — its very best mark considering that 1995. Kentucky rallied to defeat Vanderbilt with a pair of ninth-inning homers later Saturday to force UT in advance of Vanderbilt by a 50 percent-recreation.
Wander-off wizards
Tennessee hadn’t strike a wander-off homer in a ten years coming into the year. The Vols strike three in 2021 as section of their 6 stroll-off hits.
Max Ferguson experienced the most spectacular walk-off second when he slugged a 3-operate homer towards Arkansas on Could 15, lifting Tennessee to an 8-7 win towards the No. 1 Razorbacks.
Drew Gilbert belted a stroll-off homer from LSU on March 28, and Jordan Beck strike a match-winner property operate towards East Tennessee Point out on March 16.
Luc Lipcius hit a wander-off solitary on March 28 in opposition to LSU, supplying the Vols two stroll-off winners to sweep the Tigers. Jake Rucker and Ferguson also had stroll-off hits in opposition to Indiana Condition on Feb. 28 and Tennessee Tech on April 20, respectively.
UT completed the typical period 6- in more innings.
No one on Tennessee’s staff has been to Hoover 2 times
Tennessee has a somewhat expert roster with 7 gamers in the starting up lineup enjoying in at least their third time. But no a single on the Vols roster has played in the SEC Event two times.
UT did not qualify for the SEC Match in Vitello’s very first season. The Vols performed on the opening working day as the No. 9 seed in 2019 but fell to No. 8-seeded Auburn 5-3.
The SEC Tournament was canceled in 2020 owing to COVID-19, leaving the Vols with small Hoover expertise.
Tennessee is mounting offensively
The Vols ranked close to the bottom of the SEC with a .263 batting typical at the midpoint of SEC engage in. They raised their group typical to .281 with a torrid back 50 % of conference participate in.
UT stands among the top rated 4 groups in the SEC in batting common, slugging share (.468), on-foundation share (.390), operates (400), hits (554), RBIs (368), doubles (114), walks (298) and overall bases (907). The Vols rank to start with in doubles and walks.
Tennessee has particularly boosted its ability figures of late. UT strike 27 of its 75 property runs in its remaining 15 SEC online games, including a 6-homer sport at Texas A&M on April 25.
Tony Vitello reached the 100-acquire mark in history time
Vitello is the fastest coach in software historical past to get to 100 wins at UT, passing Rod Delmonico’s mark of 163 games. Vitello won 100 in his to start with 153 video games.
He notched win No. 100 at Tennessee when the Vols defeat Georgia, 11-6, in their SEC opener at Georgia on March 19.
Vitello has won 40 game titles twice in 3 whole seasons at Tennessee.
UT was 29-27 in Vitello’s to start with year in 2017 prior to heading 40-21 in 2018. Tennessee started off 15-2 in 2020 just before the COVID-19 pandemic halted the year.
ALL-SEC HONORS:Tennessee baseball’s Jake Rucker, Liam Spence receive 1st-workforce All-SEC honors
Mike Wilson addresses University of Tennessee athletics. Email him at michael.wilson@knoxnews.com and follow him on Twitter @ByMikeWilson. If you appreciate Mike’s protection, think about a digital subscription that will let you obtain to all of it.
