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Where Tennessee baseball’s 2022 season ranks among all-time Vols choke jobs

By Caleb Calhoun

The Tennessee dugout after their loss to Notre Dame in the NCAA baseball Super Regional championship game in Knoxville, Tenn. on Sunday, June 12, 2022.Kns Ut Baseball Notre Dame
The Tennessee dugout after their loss to Notre Dame in the NCAA baseball Super Regional championship game in Knoxville, Tenn. on Sunday, June 12, 2022.Kns Ut Baseball Notre Dame /
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7 Jun 1995: Tennessee players console each other after losing to Cal State Fullerton in a College World Series game at Rosenblatt Stadium. Cal State won the game, 11-0.
7 Jun 1995: Tennessee players console each other after losing to Cal State Fullerton in a College World Series game at Rosenblatt Stadium. Cal State won the game, 11-0. /

6. 1994 Tennessee baseball

Nearly 30 years before this Tennessee baseball team, Rod Delmonico and Todd Helton had a similar situation. The Vols, just like this team, had won the SEC Regular Season and Tournament Championship, and they entered the NCAA Tournament hosting a regional.

This was when the tournament had just 48 teams, so there was no Super Regional. Eight teams hosted regionals that each involved six teams in a double elimination event, and the winner of each regional would reach the College World Series. Oddly, the Vols were very clearly not the best team in their own regional based on what happened.

Rocky Top couldn’t get past the Arizona State Sun Devils. After beating Northeastern and Western Carolina for their first two games, they lost 10-5 to Arizona State. They beat the N.C. State Wolfpack to get a rematch with Arizona State and try to force a final game, but ASU won that 5-4 and didn’t lose a game in the regional.

As a result, Tennessee baseball missed out on the College World Series. Arizona State was a No. 3 seed in their regional and the No. 8 seed overall in the CWS, so they were the worst team to make it. UT would get there the next year, but just like this year, they should’ve made it back to back years and didn’t.

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