Tony Vitello not concerned with Tennessee's early start times in Super Regional vs. Evansville

Tony Vitello expects Lindsey Nelson Stadium on Saturday morning to feel like an early Tennessee Football kickoff at Neyland Stadium. He just knows he won’t be able to have as much fun as he’s accustomed to having on Saturdays in the fall. 

“We’ll have to work,” Vitello quipped during his press conference on Wednesday. 

Vitello and No. 1 Tennessee (53-11) are willing to work at whatever time given. This weekend, it’s early starts against Evansville (38-24) in the Knoxville Super Regional. 

Game 1 of the best-of-three series starts at 3 p.m. Eastern Time Friday and Game 2 will be an 11 a.m. ET start, with both games televised by ESPN2. Start time and TV info for the ‘if necessary’ Game 3 on Sunday has not yet been released. 

The series winner advances to the College World Series in Omaha.

Knoxville Super Regional: No. 1 Tennessee vs. Evansville

Vitello said the Vols got what they wanted most out of the schedule — a Friday-Sunday Super Regional, opposed to a Saturday-Monday setup.

“And I’m sure all of our guys — that’s the coaching staff, all the guys — will take extra rest if they can have it,” Vitello said, “but it helps you kind of stay in a rhythm a little bit. We were able to replicate our week — we did last week — this week without the travel back from Hoover. So to us it was good to play on Friday.”

Tennessee went from winning the SEC Tournament championship in Hoover on May 26, beating LSU 4-3, to returning home to host the Knoxville Regional at Lindsey Nelson. The Vols swept Northern Kentucky, Indiana and Southern Miss, running their regional winning streak to 12 games and advancing to the Super Regionals for the fourth straight year.

Evansville, meanwhile, was on the field Monday in the Greenville Regional championship game, rallying to beat East Carolina, the host and No. 16 national seed. The Aces beat ECU on Friday and beat VCU on Saturday, but lost its initial rematch with the Pirates on Sunday. 

It’s only the ninth time in NCAA baseball history that a No. 4 seed has advanced out of the regional round. It’s Evansville’s first Super Regional appearance and their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2006.

Tony Vitello: ‘We’ll play at whatever time. Our fans will show out.’

The Tennessee-Evansville winner will meet the winner of the No. 8 Florida State-UConn Super Regional in Omaha. On the bottom half of the bracket is No. 12 Virginia vs. Kansas State and No. 4 North Carolina vs. West Virginia. The four Super Regionals on the opposite side of the bracket are No. 3 Kentucky vs. Oregon State, No. 7 Georgia vs. No. 10 North Carolina State, No. 6 Clemson vs. Florida and No. 3 Texas A&M vs. Oregon. 

Evansville is the lowest remaining seed in the bracket. 

“We know exactly what’s going on with what games are out there,” Vitello said. “I mean, there’s some exciting matchups, so everybody’s got to kind of go somewhere. I think seedings kind of maybe plays into it at times, but that’s overrated. If you’re still playing, you’ve got the talent, but you’ve also got the locker room thing going on, so you’ve got a good group. 

Afternoon Super Regional games certainly aren’t new for Tennessee over the last four years.

At Southern Miss last May it was a pair of 2 p.m. ET starts before a 9 p.m. start in Game 3. The Notre Dame Super Regional in Knoxville in 2022 included a 2 p.m. and 1 p.m. start. In 2021, the Vols completed a sweep of LSU in a 3 p.m. game.

“We’ll play whatever time,” Vitello said. “Our fans will show out. We ain’t got Friday to worry about, but it’ll be like a football Saturday around here at 11 … happy to be on our field, happy to be playing on Friday. But once the first pitch is thrown, like all the other sites, it’s going be two teams hooking it up.”