As the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA baseball tournament, Tennessee has the obvious objective this month of holding up hardware in Omaha, Nebraska.
Yet to reach the famed College World Series for a second straight season, the Volunteers (53-7) must first conquer this weekend’s Knoxville Regional containing second-seeded Georgia Tech (34-22), third-seeded Campbell (40-17) and fourth-seeded Alabama State (34-23). The double-elimination event opens Friday, with Georgia Tech and Campbell playing at noon (ESPN+) and with Tennessee and Alabama State vying at 6 (SEC Network).
“No matter who you’re playing, they’re going to bring a fight,” Vols fifth-year senior catcher Evan Russell said Thursday afternoon in a news conference. “We learned that in our first game of the regional last year. We’re not going to be overlooking anyone.”
Tennessee’s most dramatic win of last year’s 50-18 season was its NCAA tournament opener, a 9-8 triumph over Wright State that was decided on Drew Gilbert’s grand slam to right field in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Attaining the top overall seed in the 64-team field for the first time in program history is quite the accomplishment for Tony Vitello’s Vols, but the lofty perch comes with a curse. The No. 1 seed has not won the national championship since the 1999 Miami Hurricanes, with last year’s favorite, Arkansas, failing to advance out of the super regionals.
The top-seeded Razorbacks opened last year’s super regional with a 21-2 humbling of 16th-seeded North Carolina State before losing consecutive one-run games.
Vitello’s Vols enter NCAA play certainly looking the part to buck that trend, having won eight consecutive games and having rolled through four contests at last weekend’s Southeastern Conference tournament by a combined 35-10. Blade Tidwell will start Friday’s opener for Tennessee, with league pitcher of the year Chase Dollander set for Saturday.
“I don’t know if anyone can get it to go exactly the way they want, but we’re in a similar rhythm to how we were last weekend,” Vitello said. “We didn’t extend anyone beyond what they’ve already done to this point. We’ve kind of checked all the preparation boxes, and we’ve got our guys to where they should feel as fresh as they can feel in the month of June.”
There is also the field itself that should have Tennessee’s attention.
Of MLB.com’s top-200 prospects for the 2022 draft, a whopping 12 will be competing in Knoxville: Georgia Tech catcher Kevin Parada (No. 6), Tennessee right fielder Jordan Beck (No. 22), Tidwell (No.23), Campbell shortstop Zach Neto (No. 25), Gilbert (No. 28), Campbell pitcher Thomas Harrington (No. 43), Tennessee pitcher Ben Joyce (No. 116), Georgia Tech shortstop Chandler Simpson (No. 134), Tennessee third baseman Trey Lipscomb (No. 136), Georgia Tech left fielder Tres Gonzalez (No. 137), Georgia Tech first baseman Andrew Jenkins (No. 173) and Georgia Tech pitcher Zach Maxwell (No. 196).
“You know you’ve got good teams no matter who you play this time of year,” Vitello said. “There are guys in this regional who are going to play this game for a long, long time. I’ve always wondered why would you burn a bunch of energy about who you’re going to host or traveling to play, because they’re all going to be good teams.
“This regional is a little bit of an outlier, though, because I don’t know how many regionals will have this many first-rounders this current year.”
Home runs have the potential of being plentiful inside Lindsey Nelson Stadium, with Tennessee leading the nation with 141 and with Campbell (111) and Georgia Tech (110) ranking in the top 10.
More recognition
Tennessee led all schools Thursday with a program-record four players named to the Collegiate Baseball All-America teams, with Dollander on the first team as a starting pitcher.
Lipscomb and Gilbert landed on the second team, while freshman pitcher Chase Burns was a third-team selection.
Dollander is the first Tennessee player to collect an All-America first-team honor from any outlet since Nick Senzel in 2016, and he is the first Vols pitcher since Luke Hochevar in 2005.
A Heupel hot spot
The excitement and success of Tennessee at Lindsey Nelson this spring has not been lost on Vols football coach Josh Heupel and his assistants, who made frequent stops with recruits to the packed venue.
“We’ve been able to use the environment over there from opening day,” Heupel said this week at the SEC’s spring meetings in Destin, Florida. “Every game has been sold out. It’s been awesome. We’ve taken the football team over there, sat on the first-base line and had a great time. We’ve had recruits who have been able to go into that environment, and you get to see the passion of our fan base.
“It’s a little bit different from playing in front of a 100,000 inside of Neyland, but it’s electric in there and a great opportunity for them to get a taste of what it’s like.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.