No. 1 Tennessee flexes its depth in getting even with ND in Super Regional
No. 1 Tennessee on Saturday basked in excess.
Too much Rocky Top. Too much of the pink “Daddy” hat. Too much of the celebratory cheetah-print fur coat. At least from Notre Dame’s standout.
Especially in the fateful fifth inning at Lindsey Nelson Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn.
The swaggering Vols, serenaded with Rocky Top every time they scored a run, broke up a pitchers’ duel by in the fifth, sending 12 batters to the plate, blasting four home runs and scoring eight times in evening up the Knoxville Super Regional best-of-three series at a game apiece with a 12-4 rout.
The winner-take-all Game 3 is set for Sunday at 1 p.m. EDT on ESPN, with the survivor heading to Omaha, Neb., for the eight-team College World Series. Fifth-seeded Texas A&M on Saturday became the first — and so far only — team to advance, sweeping 12 seed Louisville in two games.
Junior righty Liam Simon (2-0, 4.67 ERA) will start for the Irish (39-15) in game 3. He’s holding opponents to an impressive cumulative .182 batting average but has battled control issues for much of the season. In 27 innings, he’s walked 22 and has hit six batters with a team-high seven wild pitches. He also has 49 strikeouts.
And in his last eight innings — in a 3-0 win over Virginia in the ACC tourney and a 3-2 victory over Texas Tech in the NCAA Statesboro Regional — Simon has allowed only two hits and no runs with four walks and 16 Ks.
“I’m happy for him,” Notre Dame coach Link Jarrett said. “It lines up. He’s had two good (outings). If he can dial it in, obviously his stuff plays. How does it play out? Can't tell you, but that seemed like the logical thing.”
Tennessee coach Tony Vitello is keeping his logic to himself, but the most likely options to start for the Vols (57-8) on Sunday are either Chase Burns (8-1, 2.69) or Drew Beam (8-1, 2.72), both freshman right-handers.
“Both teams are fortunate to have options,” Vitello said. “A lot of times you get to this situation and maybe you don’t feel that way.”
Tennessee on Sunday regains the services of center fielder Drew Gilbert — the team leader in batting average (.369) and on-base percentage (.463) — after being ejected from Friday’s series opener and suspended Saturday for a profanity-laced tirade aimed at the home plate umpire.
On Saturday without him, the Vols (57-8) simply flexed their depth.
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The nation’s fourth-highest scoring team and No. 1 squad in home runs nicked Irish ace John Michael Bertrand (9-3) for a run in the top of the first on an RBI double by Trey Lipscomb.
Bertrand settled in, and he and SEC Pitcher of the Year, sophomore right-hander Chase Dollander (10-0), kept the game at 1-0 through four innings.
But in the top of the fifth Luc Lipcius led off with his 17th home run of the year to the deepest part of the ballpark in straight-away center field. Three batters and one out later, Jordan Beck hit his 18th homer of the season — a three-run shot to left — for a 5-0 Vols lead.
Bertrand, a transfer from Furman in his second year at ND, got Lipscomb to pop up for the second out. But Evan Russell hit his 14th home run of the season and 39th of his career for a 6-0 Tennessee command. That pushed him past Todd Helton for the most career home runs in school history and nudged Jarrett to pull his ace.
“I was able to go pretty well for the first three or four innings there," Bertrand said, "and then the fifth getting behind in at-bats, and then hats off to them to be able to hit my misses. They're a good ball club, and they can do a lot of damage.”
Sophomore Jackson Dennies couldn’t record an out and gave up Lipcius’ second blast of the inning — this one a three-run shot, and Tennessee led 9-0.
“It’s a party in that dugout,” Lipcius said.
Freshman Radek Birkholz came on to get the final out of the inning and pitched three total to help Jarrett save some of his premier bullpen arms for Sunday. That includes Alex Rao and Jack Findlay, each of whom threw multiple innings in the 8-6 Irish win on Friday night.
Another one of the few bright spots for the Irish was left fielder Jack Zsyka. He went 4–for-4 with two singles, a double and his 13th home run of the year. The rest of the Irish combined were 3-for-29.
Dollander was a big reason why. The transfer from Georgia Southern mixed four pitches for strikes. And in seven innings, he yielded five hits, two runs and no walks, while striking out five.
“Dollander threw a great game,” Jarrett said. “They were clearly better than us today. The physicality of the lineup showed. We didn’t keep the ball in the park, and it hurt us."
NATIONAL SUPER REGIONAL SCORES, SCHEDULE
All times are Eastern/Records updated after each result
► Notre Dame (39-15) at No. 1 Tennessee (57-8)
Friday: Notre Dame 8, Tennessee 6
Saturday: Tennessee 12, Notre Dame 4
Sunday at 1 p.m. (ESPN)
► No. 9 Texas (45-20) at No. 8 East Carolina (46-19)
Friday: East Carolina 13, Texas 7
Saturday: Texas 9, East Carolina 8
Sunday at 4 p.m. (ESPN2)
► No. 12 Louisville (42-21-1) at No. 5 Texas A&M (42-18)
Friday: Texas A&M 5, Louisville 4
Saturday: Texas A&M, Louisville 3
Texas A&M advances to CWS.
► Oklahoma (41-21) at No. 4 Virginia Tech (44-13)
Friday: Oklahoma 5, Virginia Tech 4
Saturday: Virginia Tech 14, Oklahoma 8
Sunday at 1 p.m. (ESPNU)
► UConn (50-14) at No. 2 Stanford (45-16)
Saturday: UConn 13, Stanford 12
Sunday at 7 p.m. (ESPN2/ESPNU)
Monday at TBD (TBD)
► Arkansas (42-19) at No. 10 North Carolina (42-21)
Saturday: Arkansas 4, North Carolina 1
Sunday at 1 p.m. (ESPN2)
Monday at TBD (TBD)
► Ole Miss (36-22) at No. 11 Southern Mississippi (47-18)
Saturday: Ole Miss 10, Southern Mississippi 0
Sunday at 4 p.m. (ESPNU)
Monday at TBD (TBD)
► No. 14 Auburn (41-19) at No. 3 Oregon State (47-17)
Saturday: Auburn 7, Oregon State 5
Sunday at 10 p.m. (ESPN2)
Monday at TBD (TBD)
The determination of the Men’s College World Series order of first-round games both Friday, June 17, and Saturday, June 18, will be announced Monday, June 13. The ESPN family of networks and http://www.ncaa.com/mcws will release the MCWS game dates and times as soon as they are available.The Men’s College World Series begins play Friday, June 17, at Charles Schwab Field Omaha in Omaha, Neb.
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