#1 Tennessee Volunteers win SEC regular season title, defeating #24 South Carolina Gamecocks | Local sports

No. 1/1 Tennessee completed the series win over No. 23/24 South Carolina and secured its fifth Southeastern Conference regular-season title with a 4-1 victory Saturday afternoon in front of a sellout crowd at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

The Volunteers' 22nd league win coupled with a Kentucky loss to Vanderbilt on Saturday secured the Big Orange the No. 1 overall seed in next week's SEC Tournament.

Zander Sechrist was dominant on the mound for UT, throwing six shutout innings to earn his second win of the year. The senior left-hander scattered four hits and didn't allow a walk while striking out four batters on the day.

Kavares Tears led the Vols offensively, going 2-for-4 with an RBI double in the fourth inning to score first. Dalton Bargo also had two hits and scored a run from the designated strike point.

Tennessee's three-run fifth inning ultimately made the difference in the game as Blake Burke, Billy Amick and Dylan Dreiling hit three straight RBI singles to extend the lead to 4-0.

Nate Snead took over for Sechrist to start the seventh and had a solid 1.1 innings performance despite allowing one run on two hits. Aaron Combs entered the game with one out and two on in the eighth inning and then retired the final five batters of the game to secure his fourth save of the year.

Talmadge LeCroy went 2-3 and scored the only run of the game for the Gamecocks, who fell to 33-21 overall and 13-17 in SEC play.