More in store?
Vols win another SEC crown, shift focus to NCAA tourney
The top-ranked Tennessee Volunteers won a baseball tournament Sunday.
And now they want to win the tournament.
Tennessee earned its second Southeastern Conference tournament title in three years with a 4-3 outlasting of reigning national champion LSU before a mammoth audience of 15,686 at Hoover Met in Hoover, Alabama.
The Vols were obliterated by Vanderbilt 13-4 on Wednesday, but the SEC regular-season champions regrouped to defeat Texas A&M, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt and LSU, winning by one run Friday over Mississippi State and again Sunday to improve to 7-2 in such games this season.
“It helped us to experience a lot of the different things that we did,” Tennessee coach Tony Vitello said during a news conference. “We did some foolish things, and we pointed those out, but we also accomplished a lot. If you need to know where we stand, you look at what we were able to survive.
“Vanderbilt beat our brains in, but then we beat Texas A&M, and no one is going to enjoy going there at all. Mississippi State is worthy of being a host, and this is the hottest team in the country that we were able to beat today.”
The Vols will enter the NCAA tournament with a 50-11 record and are expected to be the No. 1 overall seed, which will be made official at noon Monday on the ESPN2 selection special. Knoxville was announced Sunday night as one of the 16 host sites for next weekend’s NCAA regionals.
LSU’s bid to return to the College World Series and repeat as champion will begin away from Baton Rouge and with a 40-21 mark.
No top overall seed has won the NCAA tournament since the 1999 Miami Hurricanes, with Tennessee claiming the No. 1 spot two seasons ago only to get upset by Notre Dame in a super regional.
“We were able to do this, and it’s over with,” Vitello said. “This should give you confidence, and no one can take it away from you, but it’s time to move on to the next thing. There is no point talking about a super regional for us or any of the top eight seeds, because it’s all about next weekend.”
LSU, which rallied from an 8-0 deficit to defeat South Carolina in Saturday’s semifinal, scored twice in the ninth inning Sunday to pull within a run, but Vols relief pitcher Aaron Combs clinched the triumph with consecutive strikeouts on breaking balls.
AJ Russell, who missed a majority of this spring with arm soreness before returning to action Wednesday, got the start for the Vols and pitched the first inning. He retired the first two Tigers but then gave up a 471-foot home run to left field by Jared Jones, which was the longest homer of the SEC tournament.
That would be the lone lead LSU would enjoy, however, as Billy Amick’s homer to left in the third inning put the Vols up 3-1. It was Amick’s first hit of the tournament and ended an 0-for-17 slump.
Dylan Loy replaced Russell at the start of the second inning and worked until recording the first two outs of the sixth. The freshman from Pigeon Forge threw 78 pitches, which was easily his season high.
“With him being a freshman coming into a game like that, I thought he would be a lot more amped up and stuff,” Vols catcher Cal Stark said, “but I could see him out there breathing, which was a good sign for me. He just competed his tail off. He was throwing everything for strikes, and he made the adjustments when he needed to.”
Said Loy: “I just went in trusting my guy behind the plate. What was working so well was just the connection between me and him and him calming me down throughout the whole thing.”
Andrew Behnke walked the first two batters he faced to load the bases after replacing Loy, earning a quick hook from Vitello. It was then time for Kirby Connell, who got out of the jam when Steven Milam took a huge lead at first and was picked off by Stark throwing up the line to Blake Burke, who made the clear-cut tag.
The Vols increased their advantage to 4-1 in the seventh inning on Hunter Enley’s two-out single up the middle that scored Burke and completed Ensley’s 4-for-4 performance against LSU, which was the No. 11 seed at the SEC tournament.
“I was just trying to slow everything down today,” Ensley said. “It was a huge crowd and obviously a great opponent that we have the utmost respect for. For me, it was just getting in the box, slowing everything down and breathing as much as possible to relax.”
Connell would work into the ninth and allowed only one hit before being replaced by Combs.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@ timesfreepress.com.