Tennessee baseball is two wins away from punching its ticket to the College World Series as they host Evansville in the Knoxville Super Regional this weekend.
The Vols are back in the super regionals for the fourth straight season after sweeping through the Knoxville Regional by a combined score of 33-9 last weekend. Evansville is the Cinderella story of the NCAA Tournament to date, upsetting East Carolina twice to win the Greenville Regional last weekend on its way to the super regionals.
Here’s a look at how the RTI Staff sees the Knoxville Super Regional shaking out this weekend.
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Jack Foster
I’m not going to make this any bigger than it needs to be. Yes, Evansville is a good baseball team that didn’t just get lucky in the Greenville Regional. They earned it, and they beat a good ECU team twice.
The Purple Aces will come in to Knoxville playing with house money and nothing to lose. That can be dangerous. Throw in the fact they have a more than capable offense and a really solid ace? Tennessee can’t sleepwalk this weekend.
But, in reality, the Vols are just vastly more talented. Barring a complete collapse where the offense can find zero rhythm, AJ Causey has his third bad outing of the season, Aaron Combs and Nate Snead aren’t themselves, Drew Beam has one of his rough days and Zander Sechrist and Chris Stamos cannot get out of the first inning, the Vols are advancing to the College World Series.
Tennessee picks up where they left off last weekend and dominates Evansville. The series doesn’t make it to Sunday and Tennessee wins by more than five runs in each game.
Prediction: Tennessee wins, 2-0
Ryan Schumpert
Tony Vitello said on Wednesday that any team that’s good enough to win a regional is deserving to play in the super regional and is fully capable of winning.
And he’s right. The Greenville Regional was a strong one and the Purple Aces twice beat the host team to advance. Evansville boast a deep lineup that has a pair of really good and dangerous hitters at the top. That lineup had a ton of success last week, especially in the power department. Tennessee was the only team to hit more home runs the opening week of the NCAA Tournament than Evansville.
The key for Evansville is to get another strong start from freshman Kenton Deverman. The left-handed pitcher was brilliant last weekend against Greenville and with its lack of pitching depth, the Purple Aces will need it again.
So Evansville is capable but Tennessee is the No. 1 overall seed for a reason and hasn’t lost a weekend series in 2.5 months. The Vols pitching has held up well against just about every test they have faced and their lineup is good enough to overcome Deverman.
Tennessee returns to Omaha.
Prediction: Tennessee wins, 2-0
