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Vegas updates Tennessee baseball's odds to win the College World Series

IMG_3593by: Grant Ramey06/14/23GrantRamey
Tennessee Baseball
(Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK) Tennessee players celebrate after defeating Southern Miss to win the Hattiesburg Super Regional and move on to Omaha for the Men's College World Series at Pete Taylor Park in Hattiesburg, Miss., on Monday, June 12, 2023.

Tennessee is back in Omaha for the College World Series for the second time in three years, but the Vols are far from favorites. According to odds released by BetOnline, Tennessee has the sixth longest odds at 8/1.

Wake Forest, the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament bracket, is the favorite at 5/2 (+250). Florida and LSU are tied for the second best odds at 15/4 (+375). Virginia is 6/1 (+600) and TCU is 7/1 (+700). Behind the Vols are Stanford at 14/1 (+1400) and Oral Roberts at 20/1 (+2000).

TCU (42-22) and Oral Roberts (51-12) open play at Charles Schwab Stadium in Omaha Friday afternoon, with first pitch scheduled for 2 p.m. Eastern Time on ESPN. Virginia (50-13) and Florida (50-15) play the night cap at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN.

Up Next: Tennessee vs. No. 5 LSU, Saturday, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN

Tennessee (43-20) and LSU (48-15), the NCAA Tournament’s No. 5 overall seed, play the second game on Saturday at 7 p.m. ET, following the 2 p.m. ET game between Wake Forest (52-10) and Stanford (44-18). 

The losers from Friday’s games will play Sunday at 2 p.m. ET and winners play at 7 p.m. ET. Losers from the two Saturday games will play Monday at 2 p.m. ET and the winners will match up Monday at 7 p.m. ET.

Tennessee swept through the Clemson Regional, beating Charlotte twice as well as No. 4-seed Clemson, then won the Hattiesburg Super Regional over Southern Miss in three games. The Vols lost 5-3 in Game 1, then answered with an 8-4 win in Game 2 and the Omaha-clinching 5-0 win late Monday night. 

“I wish we could have done this in Knoxville in front of our fans,” Tennessee coach Tony Vitello said after the Game 3 win at Southern Miss, “because they’ve meant a lot to us. But it’s a challenge to win in the postseason and we had to go do it on the road. No one wants to hear it, but there were a lot of difficult circumstances this group had to overcome and I’m proud of it.”

Vols headed to College World Series for sixth time in program history, second time in three years

It’s the sixth time in program history that Tennessee has advanced to the College World Series.

Vitello took Tennessee to Omaha in 2021 after sweeping through the regional and super regional rounds in Knoxville, beating LSU at Lindsey Nelson Stadium to make their return to Omaha. The Vols were done after two games though, losing to Virginia and Texas to see their season come to an end. 

Tennessee was upset by Notre Dame as the No. 1 overall seed a year ago, losing in three games.

The Vols started this season by losing four of their first five SEC series, before bouncing back with four wins over their final five conference series. The run to Omaha came after going one-and-done in the SEC Tournament in Hoover, losing 3-0 to Texas A&M after getting only one hit.

“Losing is part of this deal,” Vitello said of the season’s slow start. “This is what we signed up for. You win some and you lose some as they say. So, the end of last year was painful, but immediately, like a few hours after our season was over, a very challenging period in our program started with a lot of different things. 

“To be sitting on this stage advancing is very memorable. Tough to put into words.”

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