Tennessee dominates Evansville, punches ticket to second straight College World Series

After a commanding Game 1 win in the Knoxville Super Regional and coming up short in a late rally attempt versus Evansville in Game 2, Tennessee faced postseason elimination on Sunday in a winner-take-all final. But following a rain delay and a dominant performance on both offense and defense, the Volunteers responded with a 12-1 win to advance to the College World Series for the second straight season and the seventh time in program history.

The team that leads the nation in home runs this season let the long ball do a majority of their damage yet again on Sunday. Racking up seven home runs on the night out of their 12 total hits, matching a program postseason single-game home run record and representing the sixth time this season the Vols have homered 6+ times in a game.

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Second baseman Christian Moore and designated hitter Dalton Bargo both homered twice on the evening. With Billy Amick, Dean Curley, and Cal Stark all hitting deep balls as well, with Stark hitting his 10th of the season to become the eighth Tennessee player to hit double-digit homers this season.

But despite Tennessee’s offense stealing the show, senior left-handed pitcher Zander Sechrist also had an excellent performance on the mound in the final home game of his college career. Pitching 6.1 innings where he allowed just six hits, struck out six batters, and allowed zero earned runs on the evening.

Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello continues to take the Volunteers’ program to new heights, leading the team to the College World Series for the third time in the past four seasons. Tying Rod Delmonico for the most CWS appearances in program history to go along with his impressive 290-111 record in the past seven seasons.

The Vols entered the NCAA Tournament as the nation’s top-ranked team and continue to show why this postseason, pushing their record to 55-12 on the season including an impressive 40-4 record at home in Lindsey Nelson Stadium. Putting an end to the magical season of the Evansville Purple Aces’ season after entering the NCAA Tournament as essentially the lowest seed after winning the Greenville Regional final over No. 16 East Carolina.

The College World Series begins on June 14 as No. 1 seed Tennessee will face off against Florida State.