Lindsey Nelson Stadium again is homer sweet homer for Tennessee baseball | Adams
Tennessee baseball is headed for the College World Series. In the best of all Big Orange worlds, they could take Lindsey Nelson Stadium with them.
Tennessee improved its home-field record to 40-4 this season with another home run barrage in a 12-1 victory over Evansville on Sunday.
Never mind the high stakes of the NCAA Tournament. The third game of the Knoxville Super Regional was business as usual for the Vols.
UT hasn’t lost a three-game series at Lindsey Nelson Stadium since the 2022 super regional.
Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska, hasn’t been as kind. The Vols haven’t succeeded in converting a trip to the College World Series into a national championship.
But they’re getting more opportunities under coach Tony Vitello, who has led three of his past four teams to the CWS.
Not surprisingly, this team homered its way there. The Vols showed why they lead the nation in home runs by hitting seven in the series-clinching victory over the Purple Aces, who forced a third game by defeating the Vols 10-8 Saturday. The homers upped UT's single-season, school-record total to 173.
Charles Schwab Field isn’t as accommodating to power hitters. And that’s not just because of the higher level of competition at the CWS. Charles Schwab Field is a bigger park than Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
Tennessee hit only one home run in losing two of three games at the CWS last season. However, that UT lineup wasn’t nearly as potent as this one.
That’s not the only reason this team might be better equipped to win a national championship.
The Vols don’t just hit home runs. They hit more doubles than all but three NCAA teams. And they hit for average.
Five starters are batting over .300. Three other starters are hitting over .270.
Tennessee hasn’t won on hitting alone. Although its pitching staff struggled against the hot-hitting Purple Aces, it entered Sunday’s game ranked sixth nationally in earned run average. The Vols are ranked 27th in fielding percentage.
The pitching faltered in the first two games against heavy-hitting Evansville, which demonstrated why it upset higher-seeded Wake Forest and East Carolina in winning the Greenville Regional. Errors proved costly for the Vols in all three super regional games, but Tennessee also made highlight plays on defense.
Something else in Tennessee’s favor in its bid for a national title: It handled the super regional pressure, which it didn’t do in losing to Notre Dame on its home field as a No. 1 overall tournament seed in 2022.
The pressure mounted this weekend when the Vols blew a 4-0 lead in losing to Evansville on Saturday. But they hit and pitched their way through the pressure in the decisive game.
ADAMS: Tennessee baseball matches Evansville resilience, trumps Aces with super regional homers
Zander Sechrist provided UT’s best start of the super regional by far. On the hitting side, Tennessee more than lived up to its longball reputation.
It’s worth noting that none of Tennessee’s seven home runs barely cleared the fence. Most bigger college parks probably couldn’t have held any of them.
Maybe, that’s a good sign for Omaha.
John Adams is a senior columnist. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 or john.adams@knoxnews.com. Follow him at: twitter.com/johnadamskns.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Lindsey Nelson is again homer sweet homer for Tennessee baseball
