No. 1 national seed Tennessee (54-11) is one win away from advancing to the College World Series. The Vols defeated Evansville (38-25), 11-6, on Friday at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
Seventh-year Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello discussed the Vols’ win to open a best-of-three series.
“It was a beautiful day at the ballpark with a great crowd and the sun shining,” Vitello said. “Obviously, it was a little windy and that was changing all day long, but what didn’t change was the competitiveness. Exactly what we thought was going to happen, happened. Their at-bats were going to be tough. (Kenton) Deverman was going to give us a tough look. We thought, with the game on the line, they would go to their guy (Shane) Harris and our guys did an outstanding job in a bunch of situations just showing some toughness.
“Good slides around home plate, battling with two strikes, making adjustments, and their guys did too. You have a guy going 100 miles per hour into the wall and plenty of other situations that you could point out that made it probably a fun game to watch and a stressful game to be in the dugout.”
PHOTOS: Tennessee baseball wins game No. 1 versus Evansville
