Tennessee baseball loss vs Evansville first by No. 1 overall seed to a No. 4 seed in NCAA Tournament history
Tennessee baseball made history on Saturday, but not the good kind.
The Vols became the first No. 1 national seed to lose to a No. 4 seed in NCAA Tournament history, according to ESPN. Before Tennessee lost 10-8 to Evansville (39-25) at Lindsey Nelson Stadium, No. 4 seeds were 0-30 against No. 1 overall seeds.
"I think it’s because we are super old," Evansville senior right fielder Kip Fougerousse said. "We are bunch of old guys who have played a lot of baseball. We are not scared of the moment. We have a lot of guys that just really want it out there — a lot of great baseball players.
"There's no other way to say it. We are an old bunch of guys who like having fun and we have been together for a while."
The Purple Aces upset No. 16 national seed East Carolina in the Greenville Regional to advance to the Knoxville Super Regional. Evansville is playing in the program's first super regional and Saturday's upset kept the Vols (54-12) from punching their ticket to Omaha.
Tennessee took an early 4-0 lead before the Purple Aces made it 4-3 in the fourth inning. The Vols tried to hang on, making it a 5-3 lead in the top of the fifth, but Evansville got its bats going in the bottom of the inning and took a 6-5 lead with three RBI singles.
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Things only got worse for UT when the Purple Aces crushed two home runs in the sixth inning, both of them two-run blasts, to extend their lead to 10-5. The Vols didn't rally until the ninth inning when they scored three runs to make it 10-8, but they didn't have enough to complete the comeback.
The Purple Aces went 8-for-16 with two outs and 4-for-6 with runners in scoring position. The Vols only went 4-for-14 with runners on base, 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position and they left 11 runners on.
Cora Hall covers University of Tennessee women’s athletics. Email her at cora.hall@knoxnews.com and follow her on Twitter @corahalll. If you enjoy Cora’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that allows you to access all of it.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee baseball: Evansville loss an NCAA Tournament history first
