Super Regional Recap: BaseVols advance to Omaha with 12-1 win against Evansville

See y’all in Omaha

Zander Sechrist dazzled on the mound, and the Vols’ offense hit seven home runs as Tennessee won game three of the Knoxville Super Regional 12-1 and advanced to the College World Series for the third time in four years.

UT’s offense followed its early-game template from yesterday and blew things open early. Though Evansville scored an unearned run in the top of the first to take the lead, Christian Moore, who has been allegedly banged up with a hip or leg injury, tied the game with a lead-off smash in the B1 to center that went 426 feet and left the bat at 115 MPH.

Then in the home half of the second, Dean Curley and Dalton Bargo went deep on consecutive at bats — the second time in two days the Vols hit back-to-back home runs. Both guys left the yard on 2-0 counts, while Curley’s was the second 400-foot-plus dinger of the game:

Bargo hadn’t had an at bat since he went 0-2 against Southern Miss a week ago, and his last hit before today was vs. Vanderbilt on 5/25/24.

After two walks and a wild pitch, Blake Burke roped an opposite-field grounder down the third-base line, which plated one more. Amick hit a ground ball straight into the Evansville shift, but he notched an RBI in the process. After two, UT was up 4-1, again.

Outside the Curley error that led to a run in the first, Tennessee starter Zander Sechrist was absolutely sparkling. He gave up one hit in the second but didn’t allow a run and then sat the Evansville lineup down in order in the third. For the game, Sechrist went 1-2-3 twice and allowed just a single base runner two more times.

When the fourth inning came around, the Aces threatened and Vol fans got to the edge of their seats as Cal McGinnis hit a one-out single and the next batter reached thanks to another Tennessee error, this one on Moore. For a few moments, things felt eerily similar to how the game unraveled yesterday. With a two-out single, Evansville had the bases loaded, but Sechrist battled through a seven-pitch at bat to get the final out and escape the frame without allowing a run.

Unlike yesterday, Tennessee’s offense dominated the middle innings today, as it put up four more runs in the fourth — all off home runs.

Bargo hit his second of the contest — the second time this season he’s gone deep twice in one game:

Then Moore also hit his second of the game, this one to straight-away center after fighting through a nine-pitch plate appearance. The ball traveled 404 feet and would have been just four feet short of a home run in Omaha — just for context.

After another Burke double, Billy Amick hit the third home run of the inning, and buddy did he crush it:

Amick’s homer went 446 feet, left his bat at 109 MPH and had a 23.5 launch angle. Four runs on four hits, and Tennessee sat on a 9-1 lead through four innings.

Sechrist needed just 10 pitches to retire the side in order in the T5, and Cal Stark put a bow on the game with another long ball in the home half of the frame. Kavares Tears led the inning off with a single, Bargo got hit by a pitch and Stark belted the Vols seventh dinger of the game:

Five of UT’s seven home runs went 400 feet or longer — but remember folks, Tennessee only hits home runs because it plays in a small ballpark, right?

Tony Vitello let Sechrist go 6.1 innings because 1) he was pitching fantastic and 2) so he could set a new career high in his last outing at LNS. His final line: 6.1 IP, 6 H 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 6 Ks. 70 of his 102 total pitches went for strikes.

Nate Snead was flat-out bad yesterday, but today he threw 1.1 innings and didn’t allow a hit or a run while he struck out two. After Snead struck the first batter of the eighth out on three pitches, he walked the next guy on eight pitches. The hurler then got the lead runner on a fielder’s choice, and with the game well in hand, Vitello went to freshman lefty Dylan Loy. Loy got McGinnis, who’d homered in both previous Super Regional games, to fly out to left and end the inning.

Loy pitched to just the one hitter, and Vitello brought in Kirby Connell, who also pitched his final game at Lindsey-Nelson. Connell struck the first man out, and then left the field to a standing ovation from the crowd. Marcus Phillips needed just four pitches to get the final two outs of the game.

The top three hitters and the bottom three hitters of UT’s lineup dominated today’s game. Moore and Amick obviously put their stamp on the game, but Burke went 3-4 with three doubles and an RBI, too. Curley, Bargo and Stark combined for four hits, four HRs and six RBIs.

The College World Series games will begin this Friday, June 14th.