Tennessee Baseball Claims SEC Regular Season Title

The No.1 Tennessee Volunteers claimed ownership of the SEC regular season title following their 4-1 win over South Carolina on Saturday.

Tennessee's Billy Amick (11) throws the ball to first base during a NCAA baseball game at Lindsey / Angelina Alcantar/News Sentinel / USA

The No.1 Tennessee Volunteers claimed ownership of the SEC regular season title following their 4-1 win over South Carolina on Saturday.

WRITTEN BY BLAKE SCHOWALTER

The Vols capped off a phenomenal regular season in historic fashion, becoming the SEC regular season champions for the fifth time in program history following their 4-1 win over No. 24 South Carolina. With this win, the Vols claimed their share of the SEC regular season title with help from No. 2 Kentucky's 12-4 loss to Vanderbilt, causing a tie for first place in the SEC East. The Vols ultimately won the tiebreaker via Tennessee's series win over the Wildcats in April.

Head coach Tony Vitello spoke on the Volunteers winning the SEC title after the game. "Yeah, I mean, that's a lot to take in. That's very difficult to do. Congrats to anybody in this league that finished with a winning record. It ain't easy. And I think one thing that's reflected this week in Hoover is if you can finish in the top four, you've set yourself up pretty nicely." Vitello went on to say, "I'm proud of our guys. There wasn't a lot of chatter about any of that stuff going on. I didn't hear any scores or anything going like that. The guys were just focused on the task at hand. And if you do that, if you have the right approach, more times than not, the result will work itself out more often than not."

The Vols completed the sweep over South Carolina with help from an outstanding start by left-hander Zander Sechrist. Sechrist left the Gamecocks scoreless throughout his six-inning outing, earning his second win of the season. Despite a strong showing from Sechrist, the Tennessee bats would struggle early, going scoreless throughout the first three innings. Right fielder Kavares Tears ended the offensive silence in the fourth inning, sending in center fielder Hunter Ensley with an RBI double to put the Vols up 1-0. Tennessee capitalized off of the fourth inning’s momentum with an RBI single from first baseman Blake Burke, followed by a pair of RBI singles sent in by third baseman Billy Amick and left fielder Dylan Dreiling, extending the Volunteer lead to 4-0.

The Tennessee bullpen would take over in the seventh inning, sending in right-hander Nate Snead. Snead would struggle in the eighth inning, hitting a batter and allowing two hits, resulting in the Gamecock's first and only run of the night. With the potential tying run at the plate, the Vols relieved Snead with right-hander Aaron Combs. Combs would end any momentum South Carolina may have created, putting away all five batters he faced, solidifying the Volunteer's 46th win of the season.

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