The Tennessee Volunteers are heading back to the NCAA Super Regionals for the fourth season in a row. The Vols knocked off Southern Miss 12-3 on Sunday evening to advance to the next round of the NCAA Tournament.
Nate Snead picked up the win in relief for the Vols after coming into the game in the fifth to spell starter Zander Sechrist, who went 4.2 innings with 3 unearned runs allowed. Snead allowed only 5 base runners in a masterful 4.1 innings of scoreless relief.
Tennessee opened up the scoring in the top of the second inning. After a Dylan Dreiling double into the left field corner to open the inning, Hunter Ensley brought him home on a single up the middle. However, the rally was killed shortly thereafter when Ensley was caught stealing with no outs on a 3-1 count.
Southern Miss tied it up in the bottom of the third. With runners on first and second, Blake Burke fielded a slow grounder. Rather than take the sure out at first, he threw to second. The ball bounded off the baserunner’s back and into the outfield, scoring a run. However, Sechrist managed to get a strikeout and a pop up to get out of the inning tied up.
Cal Stark staked the Vols back to a one-run lead in the top of the fifth inning. With no outs, he golfed a low fastball way over the wall in left center for his second home run in as many days.
However, Southern Miss answered in the bottom of the inning. With two outs, a gapper to the wall plated two and chased Zander Sechrist from the game.
The Vols retook the lead in the seesaw affair in the top of the sixth. An Ensley double put two in scoring position, and Kavares Tears brought them all home with a no doubter to right center and a 5-3 lead. The Vols weren’t done. Two straight hit batters and a wild pitch put two more in scoring position, and a high chopper from Christian Moore plated another run.
The Vols would blow the doors off the game in the seventh. Dreiling homered to center to push the lead to four. After a bizarre series where an out was wiped out with a balk, Dean Curley smacked an opposite field blast out to right, and the Vols had it in hand at 9-3. For good measure, Stark smashed a three-run blast to almost the same spot in left center in the top of the ninth for a 12-3 score.
The Vols will face either Evansville or East Carolina in the Super Regionals on Friday. ECU beat Evansville on Sunday evening, forcing a deciding game in that series on Monday.