What to know about Vanderbilt and Tennessee baseball in the NCAA Tournament

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - Both Vanderbilt and Tennessee baseball earned spots in the NCAA Baseball Tournament, as two of 11 total SEC teams in the field, the most the conference has ever sent to the regionals.

The Vanderbilt Commodores

Vanderbilt had to impatiently wait to hear its name called during Monday’s NCAA Selection Show, unlike past years when the Commodores were a shoo-in or a regional host.

Tim Corbin’s crew entered Selection Monday with a 38-21 record. Vanderbilt lost its last four SEC series of the regular season and then turned its luck around with four straight wins leading into their SEC semifinal loss to the eventual conference tournament champion, Tennessee.

Vanderbilt went 3-1 at the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Alabama, with wins over three now-NCAA Tournament teams, Florida, top-ranked Tennessee, and Mississippi State.

The Commodores are headed to South Carolina for the Clemson Regional.

The Clemson Tigers earned the No. 6 national seed, and therefore are the No. 1 seed in their regional bracket. Vanderbilt will be the No. 2 seed in Clemson, along with No. 3 Coastal Carolina and No. 4 High Point.

With that, the ‘Dores extend their Division 1, nation-leading streak to 18-straight NCAA Tournament appearances.

Vanderbilt cited its late-season turnaround as the key to keeping its postseason trend alive.

“We’ve worked hard all year, so it was not weird for us to just bounce back, because that’s the nature of our program, just to keep going and keep going,” Vanderbilt senior catcher Alan Espinal said. “But we kind of put our head down, and between all the noise and everything that people said, just kept working and kept working and kept at it, and here we are right now.”

Head coach Tim Corbin echoed the team’s sentiment of resolve and belief to state their case for the national tournament.

“I’m happy for [the players],” Corbin said. “Certainly, was one of those situations that came down to the last couple of weeks. We had a tough schedule at the end, played through it, and I like how it finished for the guys in the tournament. Certainly happy for the program’s consistency.”

Corbin will lead his Commodores to Clemson later this week, a place that holds immense meaning for him.

The Vanderbilt skipper spent nine seasons as an assistant coach at Clemson (1994–2002), before taking the head job with the Commodores. He shared that he met his wife and raised his daughters in Clemson, so it’s a place that’s sentimental beyond baseball.

As an added layer, Clemson head baseball coach Erik Bakich previously served as an assistant under Tim Corbin at Vanderbilt from 2003-2009.

“Just a lot of great memories of South Carolina -- the girls live in Charleston, Erik coached here, Erik and Jiffy are very close to Maggie and I, we’re godparents to their kids,” Corbin reflected. “Yeah, a lot of tremendous people. It’s special to go back there, for sure.”

Vanderbilt’s first NCAA Tournament game will be Friday vs. Coastal Carolina at 11 a.m. CT on ESPN2.

The Tennessee Volunteers

As for the Tennessee Volunteers, Tony Vitello’s team had no question marks heading into Selection Monday.

The Big Orange already knew it would host an NCAA Regional, and in the bracket release, the Volunteers confirmed expectations, earning the No. 1 national seed in the NCAA Baseball Tournament.

Tennessee was awarded the NCAA’s top seed for just the second time in program history. The seed is well-earned, as the Volunteers boast a record of 50-11, coming off a 4-3 win over LSU to clinch the SEC Tournament championship, after previously locking down the conference’s regular season title.

The Vols will start their postseason journey hosting the Knoxville Regional as the No. 1 seed, alongside No. 2 Southern Mississippi (Sun Belt Champion), No. 3 Indiana (at-large), and No. 4 seed Northern Kentucky (Horizon League Champion).

Starting this weekend, UT will host its eighth NCAA Regional in program history and its third in four years. The regional round will run from May 31 through June 3.

If the top-ranked Volunteers advance from the Knoxville Regional, they will host a Super Regional the following weekend.

According to the NCAA, only one No. 1 overall seed has ever won the national championship. That was the Miami Hurricanes in 1999, which was the first year of the current Men’s College World Series and tournament format.

The expectations are already high for Tony Vitello’s group, as Tennessee is the only team in the country to enter this year’s NCAA Tournament with 50 wins. That mark is even more impressive considering UT’s journey through SEC play, in which the Vols went 22-8.

“It helped us to experience a lot of the different things that we did, and we did some foolish things, you know, and we pointed those out, and we also accomplished a lot,” Vitello said. “So kind of what we were able to overcome in this tournament, which you have to do every year to win it, tells you a lot about yourself.”

The Volunteers have won their last five regionals in Knoxville, and this year’s group intends to rely on its talent and depth to add a sixth.

“There’s a lot of guys that can be put in and get the job done,” Vols senior catcher Cal Stark said. “We’re not relying on just a handful of guys, and I think top-to-bottom, all 40 of us can go in and we’re confident we’re going to put our best foot forward and hopefully win a baseball game.”

Tennessee’s first NCAA Tournament game will be Friday vs. Northern Kentucky at 6 p.m. CT on SEC Network.

NCAA Baseball Tournament

The NCAA regional (first) rounds are double-elimination format. In all 16 regionals, four teams are seeded numerically with the host as the top seed.

No. 1 faces No. 4 and No. 2 faces No. 3 to open the tournament. The winners of those games then play each other, while the losers face off in an elimination game.

The winner of each regional advances to the super regional round. There are 16 teams to open super regionals, with national seed winners carrying over as host sites. Super regionals are played in a best-of-three series format.

The eight teams to come out of super regionals will advance to the prestigious College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.

The College World Series is played in a double-elimination format until only two teams remain. Then, those two finalists play a best-of-three game series to decide the national champion.

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