SEC Baseball Tournament Extremely Important for Tennessee Volunteers

The SEC Baseball Tournament has become extremely important for the Tennessee Volunteers.

Halfway through the college baseball season, it looked like the Tennessee Volunteers were on their way back to Omaha and would get another shot at the national title. However, they have since lost five straight conference games to close out the season, and now they aren't even projected to host a regional.

In D1Baseball's latest field of 64 projections, Tennessee was placed inside of Georgia Tech's region as a two seed. That means the SEC Tournament has become extremely important for the Volunteers if they want to gain back their right to host the first round.

Fortunately for Tennessee and head coach Tony Vitello, they know exactly what it takes to win the SEC. They did so last year, the only difference is this season it's single elimination.

The Volunteers get a first round bye in the tournament and will play the winner of Missouri and Alabama. After that they will play the Texas Longhorns in the quarterfinal round if they advance.

Tennessee still has the talent to make a run during the postseason and to make another trip to Omaha, but if they can fight for some better positioning during the postseason, it certainly wouldn't hurt.