Tennessee entered Friday afternoon’s super regional showdown against Evansville inside Lindsey Nelson Stadium averaging 11 runs a game in the NCAA tournament.
That average went unchanged.
Christian Moore, Blake Burke, Billy Amick and Hunter Ensley each homered as the top-seeded Volunteers overwhelmed the Purple Aces 11-6 before a crowd of 6,195. Burke, Amick and Ensley also doubled for a Tennessee offense that was so efficient it left just one runner on base.
“It’s very challenging against them to get the third out of every single inning,” Evansville coach Wes Carroll said afterward in a news conference. “That’s the most dangerous lineup I’ve seen in my 16 years as a head coach with what they’re able to do with the barrel.”
The top-seeded Vols improved to 54-11 and can clinch a third College World Series trip in four seasons with another win Saturday over the visiting Purple Aces (38-25). Saturday’s game is scheduled to start at 11 a.m., and it will be televised by ESPN2.
Ensley’s home run was the biggest of the opener, as his three-run shot to left field in the seventh inning turned an 8-5 advantage into a far more comfortable 11-5 lead. Amick’s two-out double and a walk to Dylan Dreiling preceded Ensley’s blast.
“The ball was really flying today,” Ensley said of his 10th homer of the year. “I knew I put a good swing on it, and I knew it was gone off the bat. Seeing C-Mo, Burke and Billy all homer kind of bleeds into the rest of the team.”
Tennessee Athletics photo / Hunter Ensley’s three-run home run in the seventh inning gave Tennessee an 11-5 lead in its eventual 11-6 downing of Evansville on Friday.Tennessee’s four homers Friday raised its season tally to 163, with only LSU’s 1997 national championship team having amassed more in NCAA Division I history with 188.
Kirby Connell worked a hitless eighth inning to maintain Tennessee’s six-run lead, but he allowed singles to the three batters he faced in the ninth as the Purple Aces pulled within 11-6. Aaron Combs replaced Connell and walked the first batter to load the bases but then recovered with three consecutive strikeouts to close the game.
“We knew exactly what we were getting, and I think the players did, too,” Vols coach Tony Vitello said. “Our guys watched the Evansville-East Carolina game, so they saw it for themselves. Anybody who was wearing white today knew it was going to be hell, and it will be like that tomorrow.”
Moore’s two-run homer to right-center in the third inning was his 30th of the season and put Tennessee up 3-2, and Amick followed later in the third with a gargantuan shot that cleared the porches in left. A Dean Curley sacrifice fly scored Ensley in the fourth to make it 5-2, but a fielding error by Moore in the fifth proved costly as the Purple Aces scored three unearned runs to knot the game at 5-5.
In Tennessee’s half of the fifth, however, Burke doubled to center to score Moore, and the Vols got two unearned runs of their own to regain a three-run edge at 8-5. Those highs and lows of the fifth were not lost on Vitello.
“It’s a difference between this team and other ones that I’ve been a part of,” Vitello said. “We probably brag on our league too much, but it does kind of get you used to getting hit in the gut or the jaw. You’ve got to be able to respond.
“It’s a difference-maker how this group remains calm.”
Chris Stamos got the start for Tennessee and struck out the side in the first inning, but he allowed a two-run homer to Cal McGinnis in the second inning and was through for the day. AJ Causey came in for Stamos and worked through the sixth inning to earn the victory and improve to 13-3 this season.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.