Knoxville Super Regional schedule announced for this weekend
No. 1 Tennessee and Evansville will start the Knoxville Super Regional at 3 p.m. Eastern Time Friday. Game 2 is set for 11 a.m. ET on Saturday and both games will be televised on ESPN2.
Sunday if necessary game would be at 6 p.m. ET on ESPNU.
Tennessee (53-11) won the Knoxville Regional by a combined score of 33-12 over Northern Kentucky, Indiana and Southern Miss as the No. 1 overall seed in the Field of 64. The Vols swept both the Southeastern Conference regular season and tournament titles are will be playing in their fourth-straight super regionals and sixth in program history.
Dylan Dreiling was named Knoxville Regional MVP after registering a .538 batting average with two home runs and three runs driven in. Five other Vols – including AJ Causey, Cal Stark, Christian Moore, Billy Amick and Hunter Ensley – cracked the All-Tournament squad.
Evansville (38-24) was the No. 4 seed and won the Greenville Regional, outlasting host and No. 16 overall seed Eastern Carolina 6-5 in a decisive game seven on Monday. The Purple Aces knocked off the Pirates 4-1 in the regional opener on Friday before handing to No. 3 seed VCU on Saturday, 17-11. Evansville needed to beat Eastern Carolina once more to punch its first-ever ticket to super regional play and did just that despite getting blown out 19-6 on Sunday – the outcome that forced a game seven.
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The Monday win was the first-ever regional championship for the Purple Aces and the program becomes just the ninth team ever to make a super regional appearance after being seeded as a fourth seed in regional play. The program is playing in only its fourth NCAA Tournament ever as a Division I program (1988, 2000, 2006) and has won eight of nine games this postseason, counting the conference tournament.
The Purple Aces have set single-season program records for doubles, runs scored and home runs while the 38 wins are the sixth-most ever for the team. This year marks the first NCAA appearance for Evansville since 2006 after the program won the Missouri Valley Conference as the No. 3 seed, punching their ticket to the Field of 64. The 17 wins in conference play this season was the most for Evansville since 2001.
UE ranks second in the country with 153 doubles and possesses the No. 67 in RPI and 104th strength of schedule. Evansville is 4-8 in Quad 1 games this season.
