I’ll admit I did not expect to see Tennessee baseball back in any top 25 rankings, even after notching a huge series win over Texas over the weekend.
But lo and behold, your Vols are indeed there in at least one major outlet’s latest rankings. The Vols checked in at No. 24 in the latest Baseball America rankings released on Monday.
Baseball America joins my assessment from last night that
Tennessee likely has locked themselves into a tournament berth with the series win and a 13-14 SEC mark.
“The Volunteers likely erased any remaining doubt about their NCAA Tournament status by taking two of three from then-No. 3 Texas to improve to 13-14 in SEC play, a historically favorable benchmark for teams in the conference,” BA wrote.
Still, there’s work to do for Tennessee this weekend to improve their seeding and avoid a tougher regional matchup. And it’s an opportunity for Tennessee to make some noise and move up even further, as they’ll take on Baseball America’s No. 20 team in Oklahoma on the road.
The Sooners and Vols are sitting at 13-14 in SEC play, and the series winner here could put themselves in position to go on a run in the SEC Tournament and really improve their seeding. I don’t know if Tennessee could put themselves in position to host at this point, but it couldn’t hurt their chances to go into tourney play with back-to-back ranked series wins.
