After blowing through the Knoxville Regional, Tennessee baseball secured a spot in the super regional stage.
Now, the Vols know their upcoming opponent. The Knoxville Super Regional will feature Evansville as the visiting team for a spot in the College World Series.
The Purple Aces were the regional 4-seed in the Greenville Regional that featured national 16-seed East Carolina, regional 2-seed Wake Forest and regional 3-seed VCU.
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Evansville upset the host team of the Pirates in game one and downed the Rams to secure a spot in the regional finals. While needing two losses to be eliminated, the Purple Aces dropped the first rematch with East Carolina before snagging the decisive win 6-5 on Monday to punch their ticket to their first super regional.
This was Evansville's first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2006. It is their sixth ever appearance.
The Purple Aces finished third in the Missouri Valley Conference regular season behind Indiana State and Murray State. However, Evansville won the conference tournament to secure an automatic bid in the NCAA Tournament.
The leading hitter for the Purple Aces is Mark Shellenberger. He hit .388 on the year with 21 doubles and 16 home runs. The most home runs were hit by Kip Fougerousse who mashed 20 and drove in 64 runs.
On the mound, Shane Harris has been the most effective starter in terms of ERA. He owns a 3.68 mark but is 8-6 while on the mound. Kenton Deverman has a 3.81 ERA, 1.18 WHIP and 9-1 W-L.
Tennessee is searching consecutive College World Series appearances. The series will take place in Lindsey Nelson Stadium and will be a best two out of three series.
Evansville will be hunting its first ever College World Series while the Vols will play for a ninth in school history.
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