Tennessee Baseball's path as the No. 1 seed in the College World Series
No. 1 Tennessee Baseball’s path at the College World Series starts against No. 8 Florida State Friday at 7 p.m. Eastern Time on ESPN. The bracket for the eight-team field was announced Monday night.
The Vols (55-12) and Seminoles (47-15) are paired in Bracket 1 with No. 4 North Carolina (47-14) and No. 12 Virginia (46-15). The Tar Heels and Cavaliers play the first game in Omaha, set for 2 p.m. ET Friday on ESPN.
The two four-team brackets — Tennessee, Florida State, North Carolina and Virginia make up Bracket 1 while No. 2 Kentucky, No. 10 North Carolina State, No. 3 Texas A&M and Florida are in Bracket 2 — are a double-elimination format leading into the best-of-three championship series.
The Tennessee-Florida State and North Carolina-Virginia winners advance to play Sunday at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2. The losers play Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on ESPN.
The winner from the 2 p.m. ET game Sunday advances to play on Tuesday, June 18 at 2 p.m. ET on ESPN, facing the loser Sunday’s 6 p.m. game. Bracket 1 resumes Wednesday, June 19 at 2 p.m. ET on ESPN and an ‘if necessary’ game would be played on Thursday, June 20, with time and TV information to be determined.
In Bracket 2, Kentucky (45-14) faces North Carolina State (37-21) on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET on ESPN. Texas A&M (49-13) and Florida (34-28) play at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday on ESPN.
Tennessee won two of three at Kentucky in April and two of three at Florida in May. The Vols did not play Texas A&M during the regular season, but beat the Aggies 7-4 in the SEC Tournament on May 23.
CWS Game 1: No. 1 Tennessee vs. No. 8 Florida State, Friday, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN
There has been just one win for Tennessee baseball in its opening game at the College World Series. That came in 1995, 3-1 over Clemson.
The Vols lost to LSU in the CWS opener last season, beat Stanford the next day, then lost again to LSU, ending Tennessee’s season. Virginia beat Tennessee 6-0 in Game 1 in 2021 and Texas eliminated the Vols.
In 1951, in Tennessee’s first College World Series appearance, it was a loss to Utah in Game 1 followed by four wins over the next three days to advance to the championship game, which Oklahoma won 3-2.
Miami beat Tennessee 21-13 in the Omaha opener in 2001 and Florida beat the Vols in the first game in 2005.
