Kentucky's History at the SEC Baseball Tournament

Kentucky’s upcoming appearance in the 2024 SEC Tournament will mark its 22nd in the tournament’s traditional history. There have been 44 traditional tournaments, so the Cats have been present in exactly half of them.

From 1993-1995, the league ran separate tournaments for the SEC East and SEC West divisions, so Kentucky was present in the East Tournament all three years.

After finishing the regular season with a 39-12 (22-8) record, Kentucky and Tennessee (46-10, 22-8) split a share of the 2024 SEC Regular Season Championship. However, Tennessee will get the No. 1 seed in the tournament (tiebreaker) while Kentucky falls to No. 3, as the West Division winner always receives a top-two seed no matter what (No. 2 Arkansas).

Kentucky’s No. 3 seed in the upcoming tournament matches its previous highest seed in the 12-team SEC Tournament era, which began in 2013. The Cats were a No. 3 seed in 2017, where they advanced to the third round before losing to No. 2 LSU and No. 11 South Carolina.

They’ve been as high as a No. 2 seed twice, once in 2006 (eight-team field) and again in 1988 (six-team field). They however failed to advance past the second round in both tournaments, even falling in the First Round in ’06 to No. 3 Georgia and No. 7 South Carolina.

Kentucky has made the SEC Tournament Finals just once in 1981, when the field was made up of just four teams. They’ve made it as far as the semifinals four times (2022, 2014, 2012, 1996).

The Wildcats’ 2022 Tournament run is likely the most impressive in school history, as they just squeaked into the tournament as the No. 12 seed. They then proceeded to knock off No. 5 Auburn, No. 4 LSU, and No. 8 Vanderbilt before falling to No. 1 Tennessee in the semifinals.

Many credit this late-season push for inspiring Kentucky’s turnaround in the 2023 and 2024 seasons.

Kentucky’s longest streak of consecutive seasons making the SEC Tournament occurred from 2012-2018, a seven-year stretch. They have gone five consecutive seasons without making the SEC Tournament twice. It first occurred from 1982-1986, then again from 2001-2005.

Kentucky is one of three active teams in the conference that have never won an SEC Tournament Championship (Georgia, Missouri).

Kentucky head coach Nick Mingione however has won one tournament as part of the Mississippi State staff (2012).

No. 3 Kentucky will open play in Hoover on Wednesday morning against the winner of Tuesday’s game between No. 6 Georgia/No. 11 LSU at 10:30 a.m. EST/9:30 a.m. CST.