Tennessee vs. No. 5 LSU: How to watch Vols in the College World Series
When Tennessee baseball swept through the Clemson Regional two weeks ago, the Vols punched their tickets to the Super Regional round for the third straight year under Tony Vitello. Now the head coach has his team back in the College World Series for just the sixth time in program history and the second time in three years.
Tennessee (43-20) will face LSU (48-15) on Saturday at 7 p.m. Eastern Time at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha. It’s the final game of the opening round in Omaha in the double-elimination format.
College World Series play starts Friday with Oral Roberts scoring four runs in the top of the ninth to beat TCU 6-5, after the Horned Frogs had gone up 5-2 with three runs in the bottom of the eighth. Florida took down Virginia 6-5 in a walk-off win in the late game Friday night.
Wake Forest (52-10) will play Stanford (44-18) at 2 p.m. Eastern Time Saturday on the Tennessee side of the bracket. Wake Forest is the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and Stanford is in Omaha for a third straight season.
Winners and losers from the two games on Saturday will play on Monday, with the loser-bracket game being played at 2 p.m. ET and the winners playing at 7 p.m. ET.
How to watch, stream and listen
Time: 7 pm ET, Saturday
Location: Charles Schwab Field (4,300)
TV: ESPN
Streaming: WatchESPN
Radio: WNML-FM 99.1 in Knoxville. The Vol Network radio broadcast can be heard on local affiliates across the state of Tennessee.
Tennessee lost two of three at LSU in its SEC regular-season series in Baton Rouge, losing 5-2 on March 30 and 6-4 on March 31 to a Tiger team that was ranked No. 1 at the time. Vitello’s team bounced back for a 14-7 win on April 1 in the series finale.
The Vols entered the week with the sixth longest odds to win the College World Series, at 8/1, according to odds released by BetOnline.
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Wake Forest is the favorite at 5/2 (+250). Florida and LSU are tied for the second best odds at 15/4 (+375). Virginia opened at 6/1 (+600) and TCU at 7/1 (+700). Behind Tennessee was Stanford at 14/1 (+1400) and Oral Roberts at 20/1 (+2000).
Tennessee baseball’s history at the College World Series
Vitello took Tennessee to Omaha in 2021 after sweeping through the regional and super regional rounds in Knoxville, beating LSU at Lindsey Nelson Stadium to make their return to Omaha. The Vols were done after two games though, losing to Virginia and Texas to see their season come to an end.
Tennessee went 0-for-2 at the College World Series in 2005 as well, losing to Florida 6-4 and then falling to Arizona State 4-2 two days later.
The Vols lost their CWS opener in 2001 in Omaha, falling 21-13 to Miami, but bounced back with a 19-12 win over Georgia and a 10-2 win over USC before being eliminated in a 12-6 loss in a rematch with Miami.
Tennessee beat Clemson 5-3 in its first game in Omaha in 1995, but lost 11-1 to Cal State Fulton two days later. After that it was a 6-2 win over Stanford, but Fullerton delivered the season-ending loss 11-0 when the two teams met again.
The Vols finished runner up in Omaha in 1951, losing 7-1 to Utah in their opening game at the College World Series, then rattling off four straight wins, beating Princeton, Springfield, USC and Utah, before losing to Oklahoma 3-2.
