Vols Earn No. 3 National Seed for 2021 NCAA Baseball Tournament

Lindsey-Nelson Stadium / Credit: UT Athletics

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee will host its first NCAA Regional since 2005 after being announced as the No. 3 national seed during Monday’s NCAA Baseball Selection Show on ESPN2.

The Volunteers will host Duke, Liberty and Wright State at Lindsey Nelson Stadium for the NCAA Knoxville Regional this weekend from Friday, June 4 to Sunday, June 6. The regional round is a double-elimination format with the winner moving on to the NCAA Super Regional next weekend.

This will be UT’s second regional appearance under head coach Tony Vitello after the Vols ended a long postseason drought in 2019, making their first regional appearance since 2005.

Tennessee will open its tournament run against the No. 4 seed Wright State on Friday, June 4 at 6 p.m. on ESPN3. The Raiders won the Horizon League Tournament last week and went 35-11 this season. No 2 seed Duke (32-30) will square off against No. 3 seed Liberty (39-14) in the first game of the regional on Friday at noon ET.

The full weekend schedule is listed below.

Tickets for this weekend’s Knoxville Regional are on sale NOW at AllVols.com. Vice Chancellor/Director of Athletics Danny White and Tennessee Athletics has announced that 300 students will receive free admission to the 2021 postseason games hosted in Lindsey Nelson Stadium while supplies last.

The 16 winning teams from their respective regional sites will advance the NCAA Super Regionals, which will take place from June 10-13, depending on the host site. All super regional sites will feature broadcasts on the ESPN family of networks.

Tennessee enters the Knoxville Regional fresh off an impressive run to the SEC Tournament Championship game last weekend. It marked the Vols’ first appearance in the title game since 1995, with UT posting three consecutive wins over No. 3 Mississippi State, Alabama and No. 13 Florida before falling to top-ranked Arkansas in the final.

The Big Orange are 45-16 overall entering this weekend’s regional, their most victories since winning 46 games during their run to the College World Series in 2005.