Tennessee baseball’s 2027 SEC slate is set, and the road to the regular-season finish line runs through a loaded final month.
The SEC announced the conference schedule on Tuesday, giving the Vols a March 19 opener at Lindsey Nelson Stadium against Oklahoma, the defending national champions. That weekend also brings former Vol Jay Abernathy back to Knoxville to start league play.
Two weeks later, Tennessee gets another familiar face when Arkansas visits for the weekend of April 2. That trip to Knoxville will include former Vols Manny Marin and Brayden Krenzel, and it will be Arkansas’ first appearance there in five years.
From there, the home schedule stays busy. Tennessee will also host Georgia and Mississippi State before closing the regular season at home against Vanderbilt during the final weekend. On the road, the Vols’ five SEC series will take them to Texas A&M, Texas, Auburn, Florida and Alabama.
Here’s the full conference schedule, with each series listed as Friday through Sunday unless noted otherwise. The exact dates could still shift once television selections are made, and some weekends are likely to start on Thursday.
March 19-21: vs. Oklahoma
March 26-28: @ Texas A&M
April 2-4: vs. Arkansas
April 9-11: @ Texas
April 16-18: @ Auburn
April 23-25: vs. Georgia
April 30-May 2: @ Florida
May 7-9: vs. Mississippi State
May 14-16: @ Alabama
May 20-22: vs. Vanderbilt
Tennessee’s non-conference schedule still isn’t complete, but the Vols do know where they’ll be spending part of February. They’ll head to Jacksonville, Fla., for their annual tournament from Feb. 26-28, where they’ll face Georgia Tech, Cincinnati and Illinois in the Live Like Lou Jax College Baseball Classic at VyStar Ballpark, home of the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, the Miami Marlins’ Triple-A affiliate.
Fall ball is also right around the corner. Tennessee is set to open practice later this month on Sept. 26, and the program announced last week that it will play four exhibitions across Tennessee over its two-month fall slate.
Josh Elander said the statewide exhibitions matter for the program and its players.
"That's one thing Tony (Vitello) absolutely nailed, was just getting us out in the state and letting us see the Vol fans," Josh Elander told John Wilkerson and Vince Ferrara on 99.1 The Sports Animal on Thursday. "We know our place in the fall, so we're not playing on Saturdays in the fall.
There's going to be some good games around the state. We're going to get to see our young talent and some of our new talent in one spot, and play some good programs.
"With us not being able to play fall games last year, I do think that hurt us a little bit. Especially, it's so invaluable for our guys to play in front of the environments that our fans create.
I think it's so unique Tennessee is the Volunteer state. We've been saying it on Zooms with recruits all week, but it's really cool.
I know Vol Nation and everybody will be able to come see us play this fall. We're looking forward to that support because it carries so much weight for those guys.
A lot of times in our fall games, that is the most people any of our players have played in front of, their first time here at Tennessee. So it helps them immensely as we kind of narrow in and get to February."
The fall exhibition schedule starts in Nashville on Sunday, Oct. 11, when Tennessee faces Troy at First Horizon Park. That game is set for 4 p.m. CT and will be played the same afternoon the Tennessee Titans host the Houston Texans across the river.
A week later, the Vols will be back home to take on Lipscomb on the eve of The Third Saturday in October. That exhibition is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 16 at Covenant Health Park in downtown Knoxville, with first pitch tentatively set for 6 p.m. ET.
Tennessee’s final two fall games come in Chattanooga. The Vols will meet Kennesaw State at Erlanger Park on Nov. 1 and then return the following Sunday, Nov. 8, to play Georgia Tech.
Both are currently listed for 2 p.m. ET starts.
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