Defending national champion Tennessee needed an impressive week at the Southeastern Conference baseball tournament to enhance its chances of hosting an NCAA tournament regional.
Thursday’s quarterfinal inside Hoover Met Stadium in Alabama may wind up being the statement that secured it.
The eighth-seeded Volunteers overcame a rough outing by starting pitcher Liam Doyle and a four-run deficit to stun top-seeded Texas 7-5 in 12 innings. Gavin Kilen’s home run to right field in the top of the 10th inning gave Tennessee its first lead at 5-4, and his double to right-center in the 12th scored Jay Abernathy and Cannon Peebles to produce an advantage the Longhorns could not overcome in their SEC tournament debut.
“This team is not defending but pursuing,” Vols coach Tony Vitello said in a news conference afterward. “There is good stuff going on here, but I think what they’re pursuing is to get better. We really have not played our best baseball, and there has not been a lot of talk about other stuff.”
There are 16 teams that will host four-team regionals next week to begin the NCAA tournament. Tennessee began this week ranked No. 17 in the USA Today coaches poll and having lost five consecutive series, but Thursday’s triumph enabled the Vols to move up to ninth in the Rating Percentage Index metrics used by the NCAA selection committee.