With Tennessee’s sweep of the Knoxville Regional over the weekend, one-half of the Knoxville Super Regional is officially booked.
The other half will be decided on Monday afternoon.
One-seed East Carolina will battle underdog four-seed Evansville in the winner-take-all game of the Greenville Regional on Monday at Noon ET on ESPNU. The winner will advance to the Knoxville Super Regional next weekend while the loser heads home to start the offseason.
The Greenville Regional has been an attractive place for drama in the last few days. Evansville took down one-seed East Carolina in the first game of the tournament to set up a work-from-behind path for the Pirates from their home park. East Carolina would go on to eliminate Wake Forest in the loser’s side of the bracket on Saturday, setting up a potential double-header on Sunday.
Evansville, meanwhile, won a 17-11 shootout over VCU on Saturday to advance to Sunday.
East Carolina won their first game on Sunday to eliminate VCU and set up an evening matchup against Evansville. If the Purple Aces won, they would have won the regional championship. East Carolina was dominant, though, and won the game 19-6 to set up the winner-take-all format on Monday afternoon.
The bats can’t be stopped tonight.@StarlingJacob with the 3-run HR to make it 19-6 good guys🏴☠️🔥 pic.twitter.com/Nj7JOEPyVA
— ECU Baseball (@ECUBaseball) June 3, 2024
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So who will Tennessee face: the underdog that was red hot out of the gates or the team playing at home that scored 29 total runs on Sunday? We’ll just have to wait and see.
Greenville Regional
Friday
- Game 1: Evansville 4, East Carolina 1
- Game 2: VCU 1, Wake Forest 0
Saturday
- Game 3: East Carolina 7, Wake Forest 6 (WF Elim.)
- Game 4: Evansville 17, VCU 11
Sunday
- Game 5: East Carolina 10, VCU 7 (VCU Elim.)
- Game 6: East Carolina 19, Evansville 6
Monday
- Game 7: Evansville at East Carolina | Noon ET| ESPNU
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“I know that tonight’s game didn’t go how we wanted it to go, but if you would have told us on Wednesday that we would be playing for a regional title on Monday night, we would have taken it,” Evansville head coach Wes Carroll said after the Aces’ 13-run loss on Sunday. “Tomorrow is a different day, and I know that our team will bounce back and show the same fight and determination that they have all season long when faced with adversity.”
East Carolina has -400 odds to win outright while Evansville is at +230 according to ESPN Bet (ML).
Whoever wins the coveted final game of the Greenville Regional will have a chip on their shoulder for either a hard-fought comeback (ECU) or an underdog run (UE). But they’ll also have a daunting challenge in store next weekend.
Tennessee moped up the competition in the Knoxville Regional this weekend with a +21-scoring difference in a three-game sweep that wasn’t close. The Vols opened with a six-run victory over Northern Kentucky, earned a six-run victory over Indiana on Saturday, and closed the weekend with a nine-run victory over Southern Miss on Sunday.
Tennessee’s offense tore the cover off the baseball this weekend in the friendly confines of Lindsey Nelson Stadium, adding to a total that recently became the Vols’ all-time program single-single home run record, passing the infamous 2022 team to do so.
Lindsey Nelson Stadium also presents challenges of its own. With the stadium renovations that Tennessee has implemented since their last Super Regional against Notre Dame, the Vols can pack way more fans in and around the stands to add to the tsunami of noise that can be produced. Tennessee’s crowd had opposing pitchers rattled throughout the weekend and will certainly look to do the same against the Pirates or Purple Aces next weekend.
Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for complete coverage of the Knoxville Super Regional.
