Tennessee hasn’t trailed often this season. It certainly hasn’t trailed late in games.

The Knoxville Regional was a little bit of a different story though. Tony Vitello’s Vols swept Alabama State, Campbell and Georgia Tech, but had to do so by coming back in two of the wins.

“I think the regional was what it was supposed to be,” Vitello said. “It’s a bunch of teams that have really good offenses. Starting with (Alabama State pitcher Breon Pooler) and then what went on (against Campbell) and then (against Georgia Tech), our team was challenged to the fullest as it relates to the starting pitching we saw.

“It will make us better. Obviously, we’re back to being guaranteed only two games, but I think going into the next week, it will be good for our team that they were able to do what they did tonight and use Monday as a rest day. I think we’re a better team because of the arms we saw. For our pitchers, maybe there are better offenses out there, but they were certainly pushed as equally as the hitters.”

Campbell led Tennessee 4-0 after three innings on Saturday, but UT proceeded to outscore the Camels 12-3 over the final six innings to avoid the loser’s bracket and advance to the regional final.

The Vols had their work cut out for them even more in the final on Sunday night, as Georgia Tech led 4-0 at the end of four innings. UT tried to get in front of the Yellow Jackets over the next four innings, but couldn’t do so until the ninth.

Trailing 4-3 entering the final frame, redshirt-freshman Jared Dickey pinch-hit to lead off and smoked a single up the middle to spark a six-run frame that led to a 9-6 Tennessee win to advance in the NCAA Tournament.

“I just don't think we fear very many people,” Vols right fielder Jordan Beck said. “Even when we're down, it’s kind of like motivation to go more and have better at-bats and kind of push the game farther. The game is honestly more fun when they're close like that. You can see the competitiveness come out in us.”

“Our team all year has this kind of firepower where you love us or hate us,” lefty reliever Will Mabrey added. “In the dugout, we kind of act like maniacs. (Playing from behind) fires us up and gets us going.”

Entering the weekend, Tennessee was 1-5 in games it trailed after the eighth inning with its only win in such situations coming in the series finale against Florida in Gainesville on April 24.

The Vols were 3-4 when trailing after six innings, and 2-5 in games when trailing after seven innings, respectively.

They can now claim three wins on the season in which they trailed 4-0 at some point in the game. In addition to this weekend’s comeback wins over Campbell and Georgia Tech, they also did so against Baylor on March 5.

“I would say that they’ve responded in a lot of situations,” Vitello said. “I think there’s been a lot of situations where our guys have had to bounce back. We’ve had guys that aren’t available, everyone’s got injuries- so I’m not crying ‘poor us,’ but there’s been a lot. I haven’t been in the dugout a few times, which apparently helped us.

“There’s just been a lot of things where our guys needed to gather themselves and respond, and I think they’ve done that consistently throughout the year. Just kind of comes off in more dramatic fashion when the last two days happen. All it does is build self-belief, now you’re in that situation again, you’d like to, as a coach, keep your composure a little bit more because you know what these guys are capable of.”

Tennessee now turns its attention to Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish won the Statesboro Regional over the weekend and will now head to Knoxville this coming weekend for Super Regionals.

The only reason Vitello knows the Vols are playing the Irish is because of Peyton Manning.

“Thank you for sending (a text message),” Vitello joked. “I’m not going to say thank you for letting us know who we're playing; we’d like to just enjoy the moment for a minute. And thank you for allowing me to brag that Peyton sent my phone a text message.”

Dates and times for the best of three series have not yet been announced. The winner will advance to the College World Series.