Years and years from now, the Tennessee baseball media guide will reflect that the Volunteers were the top overall seed in the 2022 NCAA tournament and won the Knoxville Regional over Alabama State, Campbell and Georgia Tech by the combined score of 31-13.
Current Vols coaches and players will remember the regional being much more eventful than that.
Falling behind 4-0 for a second consecutive contest, top-ranked Tennessee turned a 4-3 deficit in the top of the ninth inning into a 9-6 victory over Georgia Tech on Sunday night before the latest rabid atmosphere inside Lindsey Nelson Stadium. The Vols thrived all season when no do-or-die elements were involved, and they excelled this weekend when two abrupt losses could have signaled the end of a magnificent year.
"Obviously everybody knows that," Tennessee center fielder Drew Gilbert said in a news conference, "but when you worry about things like that, that's when things usually go south. For us, it's about controlling what we can control, which is showing up preparing and competing our best."
Tennessee's preparation will now center on the super regionals and a best-of-three series with visiting Notre Dame, which won the Statesboro Regional on Sunday night with a 2-1 topping of Texas Tech.
The Vols, who improved to 56-7 in their record-setting season, pulled into a 4-4 deadlock when Jordan Beck doubled to deep center field to score pinch-runner Kyle Booker. Georgia Tech chose to intentionally walk Gilbert to load the bases, and Yellow Jackets relief pitcher Dawson Brown hit Trey Lipscomb with a pitch to put the Vols up 5-4.
Pinch-hitter Christian Moore then gave Tennessee some breathing room with a two-run single to left, which was followed by Evan Russell's RBI single to left. The Yellow Jackets wouldn't go away in the bottom of the ninth, scoring twice and loading the bases before Vols closer Redmond Walsh recorded a game-ending strikeout.
The Vols managed to survive on the heels of Saturday night's 12-7 defeat of Campbell in which Tennessee scored four ninth-inning runs.
Tennessee entered Sunday's showdown among only seven of the 16 national seeds that had won their first two regional games, joining No. 3 Oregon State, No. 4 Virginia Tech, No. 5 Texas A&M, No. 8 East Carolina, No. 9 Texas and No. 14 Auburn.
"Everybody wants to keep playing," Vols coach Tony Vitello said, "but some teams don't get to, unfortunately."
The second-seeded Yellow Jackets began Sunday with a 16-5 thumping of third-seeded Campbell, avenging Friday afternoon's 15-8 win by the Camels, and decided to start 6-foot-6, 275-pound Zach Maxwell against the Vols. Maxwell had not started since March but threw 103 pitches in six innings, racking up 11 strikeouts and staking Tech to a 4-2 lead.
"We started the year with him in our rotation, and he just had a hard time throwing some strikes," Yellow Jackets coach Danny Hall said on the ESPNU broadcast. "So we stuck him in the bullpen, and that seemed to be more comfortable for him. He hadn't thrown yet in this tournament, and we just felt that he was our best arm and he was our best option."
Georgia Tech, which took a 2-0 lead on a throwing error by Vols shortstop Cortland Lawson in the third inning and made it 4-0 with Stephen Reid's two-run home run off Drew Beam in the fourth, ended its season at 36-24.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.