Super Regional Preview: Tennessee and Arkansas battle for Omaha  

For the fifth-straight season and the seventh time in program history under the current NCAA postseason baseball format, Tennessee is off to super regionals.

The No. 14 national seeded Volunteers travel to No. 3 seed Arkansas this weekend. The first to two wins punch their ticket to the College World Series in Omaha. Tennessee will be seeking its eighth trip to Omaha while the Razorbacks are after their 12 appearance, but first title.   

Tennessee coach Tony Vitello spent four seasons as an assistant coach under Dave Van Horn at Arkansas prior to taking the job with the Vols. The Hogs won the regular season series meeting between the two clubs, taking two games in Fayetteville to end the regular season. Arkansas out-slugged Tennessee 23-20 runs in the high-scoring series.

“We got work to do. They’re good. I mean, if I’m not mistaken, by default, or as we now stand, they’re the number one seed, or the favorite to win the whole thing. So they’re good,” Vitello said of Arkansas this week. “We knew that, learned that last time. That hasn’t changed. I know as well as anyone that it’s a rowdy environment to play in and they’ll probably kick it up a notch this time of year, as our fans did last year. It’s an SEC series. Just has different labels to it, for circumstances that follow and definitely circumstances that precede it.”

Super Regional Schedule

Saturday: Tennessee vs. Arkansas (H) | 5:06 p.m. ET | ESPN
Sunday: Arkansas vs. Tennessee (H) | 3.06 p.m. ET | ESPN
Monday (if necessary): TBA

Arkansas Pitching

Starter – LHP Zach Root: 7-5, 3.78 ERA, 16 GS, 85.2 IP, 113 SO, 29 BB, .232 b/avg
Starter – RHP Gage Wood: 3-1, 5.33 ERA, 8 GS, 25.1 IP, 50 SO, 5 BB, .240 b/avg
Swing – LHP Landon Beidelschie: 4-0, 4.92 ERA,12 GS, 15 APP, 56.2 IP, 61 SO, 19 BB, .262 b/avg
Swing – RHP Aiden Jimenez: 4-1, 3.52 ERA, 19 APP, 2 GS, 38.1 IP, 37 SO, 11 BB, .269 b/avg
Bullpen – RHP Christian Foutch: 1-0, 3.48 ERA, 4 SV, 19 APP, 20.2 IP, 27 SO, 10 BB, .169 b/avg
Bullpen – RHP Carson Wiggins: 1-1, 3.21 ERA, 3 SV, 14.0 IP, 14 APP, 20 SO, 9 BB
Bullpen – RHP Will McEntire: 1-0, 2.59 ERA, 16 APP, 2 SV, 24.1 IP, 28 SO, 3 BB, .163 b/avg
Bullpen: RHP Dylan Carter: 6-0, 2.18 ERA, 22 APP, 33 IP, 36 SO, 12 BB, .202 b/avg

Root is the ace of the staff and will get the ball in Saturday’s opener. Wood, who started game three of regionals, is expected to get the start in the second game. He missed some time this season with a back injury. Jimenez is the swing guy who started a game against Tennessee last month and opened regional play on the bump last Friday against the No. 4 seed. He is a starting option for game three if needed – as is Beidelschie, who has started 12 games this year but closed out game one of the regional last Friday.

Through regional play, Arkansas ranks fifth in the Southeastern Conference in ERA (3.95), has allowed the fewest runs (238) and second-fewest walks (175) and tallied the eighth-most strikeouts (628).

Root is solid at the top but it’s the depth and versatility of the bullpen that makes Arkansas’ pitching staff so effective.

Arkansas Offense

SS Wehiwa Aloy: .355, 20 HR, 64 RBI, 77 R, 18 doubles, 30 BB, 8 SB
LF Charles Davalan: .350, 13 HR, 56 RBI, 66 R, 12 doubles, 31 BB, 8 SB
RF Logan Maxwell: .346, 12 HR, 31 RBI, 43 R, 25 BB, .451 OBP
2B Cam Kozeal: .343, 15 HR, 62 RBI, 45 R, 18 doubles
DH Kuhio Aloy: .335, 13 HR, 69 RBI, 51 R, 15 doubles, 71 SO (easily leads team)    
C Ryder Helfrick: .329, 13 HR, 34 RBI, 45 R, 10 doubles, 32 BB
CF Justin Thomas Jr.: .290, 9 HR, 34 RBI, 45 R, 5 SB
3B Brent Iredale: .285, 13 HR, 56 RBI, 57 R, 7 SB

Shortstop and leadoff man Wehiwa Aloy is the straw that stirs the drink. Like Tennessee’s Liam Doyle, Aloy was named a Finalist for both the Golden Spikes Award and the Dick Howser Award this week. And like Doyle again, he is going to be an early pick in this summer’s MLB Draft.

Seven regulars are hitting over .300 in the everyday lineup for Arkansas. The club leads the SEC in average (.313) and on-base percentage (.423), is second in slugging percentage (.560), runs scored (519), RBI (489) and fourth in home runs (120). Simply put, Tennessee and Arkansas lead the SEC in most every statistical category on offense.   

Tennessee series-stats vs. Arkansas (May 15-17)

The [FanDuel] Odds

Tennessee Baseball is +124 on the money line to win the Super Regional at Arkansas this weekend, according to odds set by FanDuel, while the Razorbacks are -158. The Vols have the third-best odds to win the College World Series at +650.

Tennessee is +140 to win the opener while Arkansas is -184. The total sits at 11.5 and the run-line is Vols (+1.5).