NCAA handed Tennessee Vols a major benefit ahead of their marquee Super Regional clash with Arkansas
The Tennessee Volunteers are off to their fifth straight Super Regional after defeating Wake Forest on Monday night 11-5 in a winner-take-all game for the Knoxville regional. With the Vols leading 8-5 in the seventh inning, Tony Vitello turned to staff ace Liam Doyle to take Tennessee the rest of the way home, and he […]
The Tennessee Volunteers are off to their fifth straight Super Regional after defeating Wake Forest on Monday night 11-5 in a winner-take-all game for the Knoxville regional.
With the Vols leading 8-5 in the seventh inning, Tony Vitello turned to staff ace Liam Doyle to take Tennessee the rest of the way home, and he did just that. He went 2.1 scoreless innings with 5 of those 7 outs coming by way of the strikeout on 31 total pitches.
Doyle pitched for the second time of the regional, as he threw 104 pitches in Tennessee's 9-2 win over Miami (OH) on Friday night. As such, with 135 pitches on his arm over the weekend, the question of recovery for the Super Regionals is a significant issue.
Fortunately, the NCAA threw the Vols a bone in that regard. They announced on Monday morning that the Tennessee-Arkansas regional will begin not on Friday, but on Saturday evening. That gives UT an extra day to get Doyle and the rest of the pitching staff ready for the Razorbacks.
The Vols and Razorbacks will get underway at 5:00 pm ET on Saturday at Baum-Walker Stadium to open the Super Regional. Game Two will be on Sunday at 3:00 pm ET. If there's a Game Three on Monday, the time will be announced later. The first two games are slated to be on ESPN.
Tennessee and Arkansas had an entertaining series last month in Fayetteville. Tennessee took the opener on Thursday night 10-7, but Arkansas managed to answer back and claim the next two games. The Hogs had rare success against Doyle this year with 6 runs on 11 hits in 4.2 innings – although the Vols' ace still managed to strike out 11.
We'll see this weekend if Doyle and the Vols can get the last laugh this time around.
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