Tennessee baseball earned its first win in the College World Series since 2001 Monday afternoon, but there’s no time to celebrate as the Vols face LSU in an elimination game Tuesday night.
The Vols staved off elimination Monday by turning a 4-0 deficit into a a 6-4 victory over Stanford thanks to a dominant performance from Chase Burns and a balanced offensive performance.
LSU dropped into the loser’s bracket after falling to Wake Forest 3-2 Monday night as the Tigers’ offense struggled against the Demon Deacons’ pitching staff.
Here’s everything you need to know about the College World Series matchup between LSU/Wake Forest and Tennessee.
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Game Time — Tennessee (44-21, 16-14 SEC) vs. No. 5 LSU (49-16, 19-10 SEC)
7 p.m. ET Tuesday night.
How To Watch
TV: ESPN. WatchESPN stream
Potential Pitching Matchups
*Neither team has officially announced its starting pitcher
Tennessee
RHP Drew Beam (9-4, 3.78 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, 79 K, 21 BB, 78.2 IP)
LSU
LHP Cooper Riley (4-3, 28 appearances, 3 starts, 4.89 ERA, 1.43 WHIP, 56 K, 17 BB, 53.1 IP, 22 pitches thrown on Saturday)
RHP Blake Money (1-0, 17 appearances, 2 starts, 5.97 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, 28 K, 12 BB, 31.2 IP, 0 pitches thrown in CWS)
RHP Christian Little (2-2, 18 appearances, 8 starts, 7.09 ERA, 1.67 WHIP, 41 K, 27 BB, 33 IP, 0 pitches thrown in CWS)
LHP Nate Ackenhausen (2-0, 15 appearances, 0 starts, 3.63 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, 24 K, 13 BB, 22.1 IP, 0 pitches thrown in CWS)
Bats to Know
Tennessee
Jared Dickey — .329 BA, .394 OBP, .923 OPS, 12 HR, 21 XBH, 52 RBI
Griffin Merritt — .312 BA, .394 OBP, 1.050 OPS, 18 HR, 29 XBH, 48 RBI
Christian Moore — .305 BA, .451 OBP, 1.051 OPS, 17 HR, 29 XBH, 50 RBI
Zane Denton — .274 BA, .409 OBP, .986 OPS, 16 HR, 28 XBH, 59 RBI
Prediction
Tennessee vs. LSU round five on the season. The Tigers have won three of the first four meetings but Paul Skenes pitched in two of those game.
The Vols get another crack at the Bayou Bengals without Skenes on Monday night. Tennessee will definitely have the pitching advantage with RHP Drew Beam ready to take the ball and LSU burning both Ty Floyd and Thatcher Hurd against Wake Forest.
It’s hard not to like Tennessee’s chances with as well as Beam has pitched the past month, but the Tigers still boast the superior offense.
Still, Tennessee has responded well with its back against the wall and I like what I’ve seen out of its offense in its first two games in Omaha. I think the Vols live to fight another day.
Tennessee 7, LSU 6
