Arkansas and Tennessee set to clash with College World Series berth on the line

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

FAYETTEVILLE – The Diamond Hogs’ Super Regional foe this weekend will be one that very familiar with Baum-Walker Stadium.

Arkansas (46-13) will host defending national champion Tennessee (46-17) beginning Friday or Saturday in a best 2-of-3 format with the winner moving on to the College World Series.

Dates, sites, times and broadcast information for the super regionals will be released via press release and social media at approximately 9 a.m. on Tuesday.

The two teams met May 15-17 in Fayetteville with the Razorbacks winning two of three at Baum-Walker Stadium.

Arkansas, the top remaining deed left in the NCAA Tournament, has beaten Tennessee in 11 of the last 13 games between the two college baseball powers.

Former Arkansas assistant coach and current Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello’s team advanced with an 11-5 win over Wake Forest on Monday night in the Knoxville Regional.

Vitello, whose team is in its fifth straight Super Regional, was asked in his post-game press conference about heading to Fayetteville.

“I guess they won. Did they win? Vitello said. “Not that I didn’t expect them to. I talked to those guys before all this started, but I didn’t know it was complete.

“You know when you are in the backyard, at least in the neighborhood I grew up in, everybody meets out on the street and you play a bunch of games, whenever I lost, maybe my dad did it to me, I was kind of a little punk.

“But I always wanted ‘let’s run it back, let’s redo it.’

“At the very least, my first reaction is we want to be playing this time of year as does anybody that is left…It’s a blessing to be playing.

“This team has been confident going on the road and at the very least they get a chance to redo the thing.”

The Razorbacks went undefeated in their three games while winning the Fayetteville Regional this past weekend.

Arkansas, Tennessee, Auburn and LSU are the four SEC teams left in the field of the 13 that were originally in the bracket.

LSU grabbed the final spot on Monday night by rallying from a 5-1 deficit to beat Little Rock 10-6.

Photo by John D. James

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Super Regional match-ups:

No. 3 Arkansas vs. No. 14 Tennessee

 Louisville vs. Miami

 No. 9 Florida State vs. No. 8 Oregon State

 No. 5 North Carolina vs. Arizona

Coastal Carolina vs. Auburn

UTSA vs. UCLA

Murray State vs. Duke

LSU vs. West Virginia