Tennessee Volunteers' dominating regular season earns them No. 1 seed in NCAA baseball tournament

OMAHA, Neb. — After finishing one of the most dominant runs in SEC history, Tennessee was selected the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA baseball tournament Monday.

The Volunteers (53-7) won 31 of their first 32 games, swept the SEC regular-season and tournament titles and have the best pitching and batting statistics in the nation.

They've been the consensus No. 1 team in the polls all but one week since March 28 and enter regionals having won eight straight and 12 of 13.

The 64-team tournament opens Friday in 16 regionals. Winners advance to eight best-of-three super regionals. Those winners move on to the College World Series in Omaha.

The top eight national seeds are assured of hosting super regionals if they win their regionals.

The national seeds following Tennessee: Stanford (41-14), Oregon State (44-15), Virginia Tech (41-12), Texas A&M (37-18), Miami (39-18), Oklahoma State (39-20) and East Carolina (42-18).

Stanford, which won the Pac-12 regular-season and tournament titles, is a national seed for the first time since it was No. 2 in 2018. Oregon State gives the Pac-12 two of the top three seeds for the first time.

Virginia Tech, which was picked to finish second to last in the ACC's Coastal Division, has its highest seed in program history and will be playing in a regional for the first time since 2013.

Texas A&M won its last seven SEC series under first-year coach Jim Schlossnagle to lock up a national seed after not making the tournament last year.

East Carolina will play in the tournament for a 32nd time. The Pirates have made the most appearances in the event without reaching a CWS.

Seeds nine through 16: Texas (42-19), North Carolina (38-19), Southern Mississippi (43-16), Louisville (38-18-1), Florida