#2 Tennessee, after falling behind to #14 LSU 2-1, had a big sixth inning and held on for a 4-2 Super Regional victory before an overflowing crowd in Knoxville on Saturday night.
The Vols (46-19) are now a win away from going to the College World Series.
In the sixth, Max Ferguson walked and Jake Rucker doubled. Ferguson scored on a fielder's choice and Luc Lipcius moved Rucker across the plate with another fielder's choice. Jordan Beck's single movee the Vols ahead by two runs. The bases were full when the inning finally ended.
Tennessee is hosting a Super Regional for the first time in program history and is making just the third Super Regional appearance since the tournament moved to its current format.
The second game will be Sunday at noon or 3 p.m. on ESPN2 or ESPNU.
The third game (if necessary) will be Monday at 4 p.m. or 7 p.m. on ESPN2 or ESPNU.
Tickets for this weekend are officially sold out. A limited number of standing room only tickets will be made available at the Lindsey Nelson Stadium Ticket office 90 minutes prior to each game. For more ticket info, click HERE.
Fan parking for this weekend's games will be located in the G-16 garage (entrance located on Pat Head Summitt Street) and the C-22 lot (located down Volunteer Blvd.). The G-16 garage will be for ticketed fans only. All other fans should plan to park in the C-22 lot or elsewhere on campus. An updated parking map for this weekend can be seen HERE (PDF).
BROADCAST INFO
TV/Stream: ESPN2 / ESPNU / ESPN App
Talent: Tom Hart (PxP), VFL Chris Burke (Analyst)
Radio: Vol Network (FM 99.1 / AM 990)
Talent: John Wilkerson and Vince Ferrara
NCAA TOURNAMENT HISTORY
Appearances: 10 (Last in 2019)
Super Regional Record: 4-0 (1.000)
College World Series Appearances: 4 (1951, 1995, 2001, 2005)
This will be UT's third appearance in a Super Regional and its first since sweeping Georgia Tech in 2005.
SERIES HISTORY
Overall: LSU leads, 59-25
In Knoxville: LSU leads, 20-16
In Baton Rouge: LSU leads, 36-8
Neutral Sites: LSU leads, 3-1
Last Meeting: W, 3-2 (March 28, 2021)
Tennessee recorded just its second sweep of LSU in program history when the two sides met in Knoxville back in late March. The Vols recorded a pair of walk-off wins in games two and three. All three games in the series were decided by two or fewer runs.
- Tennessee's undefeated weekend at home last weekend improved the Vols all-time regional record to 24-15 and 17-5 when hosting a regional.
- UT is 36-23 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and 4-0 all-time in Super Regionals entering this weekend's matchup with LSU.
- This will be the Vols third-ever appearance in the Super Regionals under the NCAA Tournament's current format.
- UT has homered in 25 of its past 28 games and has left the yard multiple times on 14 occasions during that span. Six of those multi-homer games featured four or more long balls.
- Sophomore Drew Gilbert homered in all three of the Vols' regional contests, becoming just the second UT player in over a decade to homer in three consecutive games. The other was Luc Lipcius, who did so earlier this season by homering in all the of the Vols' games vs. Kentucky.
- The Knoxville Regional was considered the most explosive offensive regional, as the confines of Lindsey Nelson Stadium leaked 32 total home runs across the weekend's six games (5.3 hrpg).
- This weekend's set of contests will be a rematch of a series inside LNS between the Vols and Tigers back in March. That series saw the Orange & White sweep LSU for the first time since 2008.
- The Vols are one of the top power hitting teams in the nation, blasting 92 home runs, marking the most the Orange & White have hit in a single season since 2009, leaving them just 15 long balls away from the program record of 107, set in 1998.
Tennessee Vice Chancellor/Director of Athletics Danny White on Thursday announced plans to host a "Big Orange Block Party" adjacent to Lindsey Nelson Stadium during this weekend's NCAA Baseball Super Regional games.
A limited number of standing-room-only tickets will go on sale at the front-entrance ticket window at Lindsey Nelson Stadium as gates open 90 minutes prior to each game of Tennessee's best-of-three series against LSU. Fans interested in purchasing SRO tickets may begin forming a line no earlier than 2 p.m. Saturday. Fans unable to secure tickets will be able to soak in the gameday atmosphere at the Big Orange Block Party which begins 2.5 hours prior to first pitch.
The Block Party will be a family friendly environment that is free for all fans and will feature a live big-screen game broadcast, games for children, access to concessions and more. Coolers, glass bottles and glass containers are prohibited.
More info on the Big Orange Block Party can be found HERE.
A pair of wins this weekend would send Tennessee to the program's fifth-ever College World Series and first since 2005.
There, the Vols would open their run in Omaha with a date against the winner of the Columbia Super Regional between Virginia and Dallas Baptist.