The Official #4 seed Vandy @ #8 seed Tennessee SEC Tourney Semifinal Game Thread (Sat. May 24 11 AM EDT) (SEC Network)

[GUNTERSVOL]

54% of our players are freshmen and redshirt freshmen. We still made it to the SEC semi-finals, will be hosting a regional series, and could possibly be playing for more. The future looks bright.

Host or not I think we CAN move on. Not going to get all caught up on the stupid committees placement. Deep run from other locations is OK by me. Really like our chances if Russel is REALLY back. Anywhere 14-19 would not surprise me.

 

[CAVPUT]

So. You do need to suffer through the highlights…

I'd rather read the game thread.

 

[SKV84]

The 2025 NCAA DI baseball selection show will air on Monday, May 26 at 12 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

2025 college baseball conference tournaments: Schedules, brackets, auto-bids

Everything you need to know about the 29 DI baseball auto bids in 2025, including conference tournament schedules, dates and brackets.

www.ncaa.com

The regional hosts will be announced tomorrow night

 

[KnoxCentral92]

Apologies. Had to take a minute. Disappointed as everyone else. Really disappointed. It’s been a long season and it showed today. They fought, just seemed a bit out of gas. We went all in on Texas, got it…nothing left, out of arms, out of juice and VU is a good baseball team, deep.

We got out coached today too. We are what we are at this point. We’ll get what we’ve earned.

GBO!!!

Out coached? Explain. Did Tv flip a ball over fb with glove instead of barehand? Did he strike out on multiple at bats? Did he choose to try to get 2nd and get thrown out? Did he allow 8 earned runs? We got our butt handed to us. No blame to CTV

 

[volfannga]

Just stfu. My lord.

That's why I love that ignore option.

 

[vol66]

Out coached? Explain. Did Tv flip a ball over fb with glove instead of barehand? Did he strike out on multiple at bats? Did he choose to try to get 2nd and get thrown out? Did he allow 8 earned runs? We got our butt handed to us. No blame to CTV

Where was Elander, did he give em the stop sign or wave him on, come on man, we just got run ruled over in Hoover by our instate rival and… ya can’t blame Marcus this time. We already played them, both teams know each other well, there’s plenty of blame to go around.

 

[knoxvol52]

I’ll play…football team spends the most, they should win something, call back when that happens. Baseball School until they do.

What's funny is that the fan posting those thoughts thinks Baseball has a ton of NIL money to hand out. Baseball spends a fraction compared to Football..

 

[Orangeslide]

Vandy has a good club this year…………and they are playing good baseball right now. I hate to say this, but I will not be shocked if they end up in Omaha. Vols need to focus on getting better and win the regional they are placed in. Get to the supers and hope for the best.

 

[txbo]

Where was Elander, did he give em the stop sign or wave him on, come on man, we just got run ruled over in Hoover by our instate rival and… ya can’t blame Marcus this time. We already played them, both teams know each other well, there’s plenty of blame to go around.

Yep. You win 0% of the games that you get shut out.

 

[txbo]

Top 3 seeds will not play for SEC title.
Tough league.

 

[Weezer]

When it comes to beating Vandy, or really any SEC foe, it really is what is best in life....

I'm ashamed to say my lamentations may have been heard by the enemy....

Rough day.

Time to refocus on the rest of the postseason.

 

[BP4Prez]

Never showed up today. Bad baseball. On to 2026, nothing meaningful left for this year.

You have no plans to watch next week huh?

 

[Tenacjim]

Good news, we only dropped 1 spot to 11 in RPI. Now we just need other borderline hosting schools to lose!

Well, that didn’t last. Down to #14 in RPI now. Jumped by FSU, Ole Miss and UCLA. Ole Miss now #10. Looking more and more likely we have to be Road Warriors again.

 

[malibuvol]

Was Curley in slow motion on the way home?

Unfortunately, Dean is always in slow motion...I still think his pro position is 3rd base...Too slow for short or 2nd.

 

[Jax_Vol]

Unfortunately, Dean is always in slow motion...I still think his pro position is 3rd base...Too slow for short or 2nd.

I was disappointed that we challenged the call.

 

[AthensVol2007]

Well, that didn’t last. Down to #14 in RPI now. Jumped by FSU, Ole Miss and UCLA. Ole Miss now #10. Looking more and more likely we have to be Road Warriors again.

I’m completely baffled at UCLA’s RPI and how it’s that high.

Q1 records:
14-11 vs 3-7

Q1-2 records:
21-16 vs. 14-8

Q3-4 opponents played:
22 vs 35

Q3-4 losses:
0 vs 7

SOS:
12 vs 22

 

[VolGee4]

I’m completely baffled at UCLA’s RPI and how it’s that high.

Q1 records:
14-11 vs 3-7

Q1-2 records:
21-16 vs. 14-8

Q3-4 opponents played:
22 vs 35

Q3-4 losses:
0 vs 7

SOS:
12 vs 22

The RPI is an index that creates the quad tiers. It includes the records of your opponents and opponents’ opponents. It’s a little flawed. Even though UCLA plays in a worse conference, they played a solid out of conference schedule. For us, playing Hofstra and St. Bonaventure each in a 3 game series does not help. They have losing records and 210+ RPI’s. I get why we play them, but our program is good enough to try to target early season series with teams that are 90-175 in the RPI. Georgia played UNCW and Florida Gulf Coast in the preseason, and both were decent. UNCW was top 80.

 

[vol66]

The RPI is an index that creates the quad tiers. It includes the records of your opponents and opponents’ opponents. It’s a little flawed. Even though UCLA plays in a worse conference, they played a solid out of conference schedule. For us, playing Hofstra and St. Bonaventure each in a 3 game series does not help. They have losing records and 210+ RPI’s. I get why we play them, but our program is good enough to try to target early season series with teams that are 90-175 in the RPI. Georgia played UNCW and Florida Gulf Coast in the preseason, and both were decent. UNCW was top 80.

Only thing I would add is we don’t know how far out it was scheduled and maybe we just had a hard time scheduling teams that wanted to come to Knoxville for the pay check. Lots has to do with relationships and things we won’t know.

 

[VolGee4]

Only thing I would add is we don’t know how far out it was scheduled and maybe we just had a hard time scheduling teams that wanted to come to Knoxville for the pay check. Lots has to do with relationships and things we won’t know.

Possible. But I think most mid major baseball teams are willing to play those early seasons series. Teams from up north are looking for series down south, but the problem is they usually aren’t good programs. Our Samford series was solid. Any mid major in the south or out west has a better chance of being decent.

 

[AthensVol2007]

The RPI is an index that creates the quad tiers. It includes the records of your opponents and opponents’ opponents. It’s a little flawed. Even though UCLA plays in a worse conference, they played a solid out of conference schedule. For us, playing Hofstra and St. Bonaventure each in a 3 game series does not help. They have losing records and 210+ RPI’s. I get why we play them, but our program is good enough to try to target early season series with teams that are 90-175 in the RPI. Georgia played UNCW and Florida Gulf Coast in the preseason, and both were decent. UNCW was top 80.

But isn’t that taken into account in overall SOS? Yeah they played a lot of good OOC teams plus the few decent conference teams and that adds up to less overall good teams. They also played way more terrible teams.

 

[vol66]

Possible. But I think most mid major baseball teams are willing to play those early seasons series. Teams from up north are looking for series down south, but the problem is they usually aren’t good programs. Our Samford series was solid. Any mid major in the south or out west has a better chance of being decent.

That and they look at the available tape from the season before and say, “ nah, it will destroy what we’re trying to build here.” Or…”we should play the best”…I honestly don’t know what goes into the schedule but there are folks here that might be able to shine a light.

GBO!!!

 

[VolGee4]

But isn’t that taken into account in overall SOS? Yeah they played a lot of good OOC teams plus the few decent conference teams and that adds up to less overall good teams. They also played way more terrible teams.

Even mediocre P4 teams might have a winning record. So, a mediocre conference still has teams over .500. A mediocre or bad mid major has a losing record. It’s about records. We lost 2 of 3 from UK, who was 29-24. They ended up 37 in the RPI because of SOS. UCLA played Purdue, who ended up 31-23 but 122 in the RPI. Again, it’s got a flaw. But those early season series that we play against mid majors that go 18-36 do us no good.

 

[VOLINVONORE]

54% of our players are freshmen and redshirt freshmen. We still made it to the SEC semi-finals, will be hosting a regional series, and could possibly be playing for more. The future looks bright.

I saw a lot of mistakes and errors made by non-Freshmen during the last month. I can not blame it on the Freshmen.

 

[cardvolfan]

No, Tony is a player coach. Ride or die. His loyalty and coaching is why we have a top recruiting class.

Loyalty can be a 2-way street. The elephant in the room (in this case the forum) is the Curley situation. I have to wonder if guys who are working hard to see the field are getting frustrated not seeing the field because Curley keeps getting the starts when others will undoubtedly be better but still not get starts. If I was a player that would irritate me. Also, after so many miscues and games lost because of this, I have to believe there is some frustration amongst the players with Tony continuing to play someone out of loyalty. The players tend to be supportive of each other, but at what point do they want to correct the situation and have a better chance at getting a win. Finally, if I was an elite freshman coming into a program and my expectation was to play early and often, I would be terribly displeased if I was better but another player kept getting the starts.

 

[VOLINVONORE]

Unfortunately, Dean is always in slow motion...I still think his pro position is 3rd base...Too slow for short or 2nd.

He had a great year last year although he did have some fielding mistakes. He regressed this last month and seems to have lost some of his spunk. He was moved two times in the infield because of errors, most of which were throwing errors. Sixteen errors by one infielder is not very good.