The 2025 NCAA baseball tournament has been filled with a staggering amount of unpredictability.
Top-seeded Vanderbilt and second-seeded Texas failed to make the super regional round that begins Friday, while the Murray State Racers and the University of Texas at San Antonio Roadrunners are among the 16 surviving teams.
Then there is the matchup of No. 14 Tennessee and No. 3 Arkansas at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville, which features two Southeastern Conference powers on the verge of stocking the Major League Baseball draft in July. Tony Vitello’s Volunteers (46-17) are the reigning national champions, while the Razorbacks (46-13) are the highest remaining seed and swept through their regional by the combined score of 26-6.
Arkansas took two of three games from Tennessee in Fayetteville last month to close the SEC’s regular season.
“When you’re in the backyard or you meet out in the street and you play a bunch of games, whenever I lost – and I was kind of a little punk – I always wanted to run it back and redo it,” Vitello said Monday night following Tennessee’s 11-5 win over Wake Forest in the Knoxville Regional title game. “We want to be playing this time of year as does anybody who’s left.
“It’s a blessing to be playing, and this team has been confident in games on the road, but at the very least, they get a chance to redo the thing.”
The Fayetteville Super Regional opener has been scheduled for Saturday at 5 p.m. Eastern, with the second game set for Sunday at 3, with each of those contests televised by ESPN. Should a third and deciding game be necessary, it would take place Monday.
Starting on Saturday instead of Friday is a huge benefit for Tennessee after a Knoxville Regional in which Vols ace Liam Doyle threw 104 pitches in Friday night’s 9-2 win over Miami of Ohio and then 31 more Monday night when he recorded the final seven outs. Five of those seven were by strikeout, giving him 158 for the season to break Luke Hochevar’s school mark of 154 set in 2005.
“One possible plan for him was coming in the fifth and pitching the middle of the game,” Vitello said. “I would trust that guy with anything you could come up with, but I also care about him and didn’t want to be in a position where he would stretch out the pitch count a little bit too much.”
Said Doyle: “I just knew I was prepared for the moment.”
Monday marked the final contest for Doyle and first baseman Andrew Fischer inside Lindsey Nelson Stadium. The two were Ole Miss teammates last season and have further thrived as Vols, with Fischer launching a two-run home run in his Tennessee home finale for his 24th of the year.
“He’s my best friend,” Fischer said of the SEC pitcher of the year. “We’ve lived together this year and last year. It’s an amazing feeling. I respect him more than I can describe with words. He works really hard, and obviously you guys can see the results.
“He’s the best pitcher in the country.”
Doyle will be looking for a Baum-Walker Stadium do-over after allowing 11 hits and eight runs (six earned) during an 8-6 loss to the Razorbacks in his first go-around.
The Vols have reached their fifth consecutive super regional, the only program nationally to attain that feat. They had a 12-0 regional record the past four seasons before going 3-1 this year, needing Monday’s win after falling 7-6 to the Demon Deacons on Sunday night.
“I think we did it in a different style,” Vitello said. “We had a winning record (at the SEC tournament) in Hoover even though it didn’t end well, but we learned from it. This was a new style for us. We had not done it this way at home, and it’s good to face that adversity a little bit.
“There have been some magical moments in this building as it’s being reconstructed.”
Walter apology
Wake Forest coach Tom Walter was caught by ESPN2 cameras mouthing a homophobic slur moments before Fischer hit his two-run homer in the fourth inning and apologized Tuesday.
“I have seen the videos,” Walter said via a released statement, “and while I do not remember the specific moment clearly, that language doesn’t reflect my values or the standards of the program.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.