Tennessee will play for a spot in the College World Series for the fifth-straight year.

With their season on the brink, the national 14-seed Vols erased a two-run deficit with an emphatic seven-run fourth inning to beat Wake Forest, 11-5 in a winner-take-all Knoxville Regional final at Lindsey Nelson Stadium on Monday.

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Tennessee will play national 3-seed Arkansas in the Fayetteville Super Regional next weekend.

After trailing the Demon Deacons early for the second-straight game, the Vols' (46-17) surge came one inning after getting just one run across after beginning the third with the bases loaded and no outs.

Tennessee wasted no runners in the fourth, which began with a couple of walks and two wild pitches to give the Vols their first lead. Then Manny Marin blew it open with a three-run home run to right field. Andrew Fischer followed it up with a two-run shot.

Wake Forest (39-22) answered with two runs in the fifth and another sixth, but pitching held the Deacons off.

After taking the lead on Matt Conte's two-run home run in the second, reliever Brayden Krenzel, who entered for starter A.J. Russell that same inning, had a strong outing.

Krenzel gave up just one hit while tossing three strikeouts in 2.2 innings of work, and was followed by efficient relief outings from Dylan Loy, Tanner Franklin and Liam Doyle, who entered in relief in the seventh after throwing 104 pitches in Tennessee's Regional opener on Friday and held the Deacons hitless while striking out five over the last 2.1 innings.

And the Vols' lineup backed them up.

Tennessee batters tallied nine hits, putting together a hitting performance that provided insurance down the stretch couldn't have come at a better time.

A.J. Russell got the ball in a do-or-die game and got off to a strong start in the first inning.

He gave up a two-out double that made for a tough play for diving Dalton Bargo, but was otherwise was impressive, tossing a strikeout and a pop-up to Andrew Fischer at first base to keep Wake Forest scoreless.

Tennessee was unable to take advantage of a base runner in the bottom first after Fischer drew a one-out walk.

For the second-straight game, the Deacons struck first in the second. Luke Costello singled to left-center, then Matt Conte homered into the Vols' bullpen in right field to give Wake Forest a 2-0 lead with two outs.

The back-to-back hits made for a quick exit for Russell, who was pulled for Brayden Krenzel.

Krenzel got Tennessee out of trouble in the second, and then again in the third. Then the Vols started to threaten in the bottom third.

Levi Clark reached on a hit-by-pitch, and Cannon Peebles walked. Manny Marin loaded the bases with no outs with a bunt single and Wake Forest went to the bullpen, bringing in Zach Johnston to try and escape the frame with the Vols back to the top of their order.

Gavin Kilen grounded into a double play, but Clark scored to get Tennessee on the board, 2-1. Fischer struck out in the following at-bat, preventing the Vols from doing more damage.

After a 1-2-3 fourth from Krenzel, Tennessee threatened again in the bottom half. Hunter Ensley led off with a walk, and Dean Curley walked two at-bats later. Both moved into scoring position on a wild pitch and Reese Chapman's infield to singled allowed Ensley to score and draw the Vols even at 2-2.

Tennessee didn't waste runners in this frame. The second wild pitch scored Curley and gave the Vols their first lead, at 3-2 with still one out and two on.

Marin sent the home crowd into a frenzy with a three-run shot to right that extended Tennessee's big inning and stretched its lead to 6-2. Fischer sent them into further pandemonium with a two-run homer to make it 8-2.

Wake Forest answered in the fifth when Matt Scannell homered to left-center to score two and trim the the Vols' lead to 8-4 with one out. That was the end of Krenzel's night, and Dylan Loy took over.

Loy delivered with a ground out and strikeout to hold the Deacons to just the two runs.

A one-out double from Dalton Wentz ended Loy's outing, but an Austin Hawke single up the middle against reliever Tanner Franklin plated another Wake Forest run to cut into the Tennessee lead for the second-straight inning at 8-5.

Franklin held off the Deacons in the seventh when Liam Doyle entered to loud applause and then struck out Lewis to end the inning and strand a runner.

Looking to add insurance after a couple of scoreless frames since its fourth inning explosion, Fischer walked and Ensley singled to right to put runners on the corners with no outs.

Curley provided the insurance. His single to center against Wake Forest ace Blake Morningstar, who had entered out of the bullpen earlier in the frame after starting Friday, scored Ensley and Fischer to swell the Vols' lead to 10-5.

Jack Winnay sent a Doyle pitch high and to the warning track where it was nabbed by Jay Abernathy to begin the eighth. Deacons' batters didn't come close the rest of the frame. Doyle struck out the next two swinging and Tennessee was three outs away from extending its season at least another week.

Marin came through again in the bottom eight, doubling down the line in left and setting up Kilen, whose double through the left side scored Marin and upped the Vols' lead to 11-5.

Tennessee and Arkansas will play for the fourth time in less than a month, this time with a CWS berth on the line.

The Razorbacks beat the Vols in two out of three games at Baum-Walker Stadium in both teams' regular season finales on May 15-17.

Two wins would send Tennessee to Omaha for the fourth time in five years. Arkansas is looking to return to the CWS for the first time since 2022.

Start times and TV designations are to be determined.

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