Vols Are Two Wins From Omaha, But It’s Their Toughest Task Yet
Image: Tennessee Athletics
By Garrett Armbrust
This weekend’s series is potentially the most exciting series in Baum-Walker Stadium history.
The defending National Champions, the Tennessee Volunteers, vs. one of the most complete teams in the country, the Arkansas Razorbacks.
Arkansas is no stranger to Omaha over the past decade-plus. They’ve made it to the College World Series six times since 2009.
Most notably losing in heartbreaking fashion in 2018 vs. Oregon State after dropping a potentially game-winning fly out in foul territory.
Dave Van Horn has led Arkansas to be one of the most elite teams in the country during his time in Fayetteville. Seeing the recent success of Tony Vitello and Tennessee’s Omaha success in the past few years has definitely lit a fire to make his team better.
Arkansas does not want to lose to Tennessee this weekend and see the Vols head back to Omaha with a team that struggled down the stretch of the regular season. Arkansas already took two of three games from the Vols last month.
The Vols understand that regular season play doesn’t matter anymore and since postseason play began in Hoover they’ve looked like a different team.
The bats are hot, fielding errors have been kept to a minimum, and solid pitching helped them make a nice SEC Tournament run and win the Knoxville Regional.
This weekend will be the Vols’ toughest postseason task possibly in the Tony Vitello era though. They’ve won on the road at Clemson, Southern Miss, and obviously in Omaha during his time.
However, a large majority of their success has come in the friendly confines of Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
This week the Vols will travel to one of the hardest stadiums in America to play in where tickets just to get in are well over $250. The crowd is going to be incredibly rowdy just as LNS was this past weekend.
Tennessee knows how to win these games. They’ve done it before, and if Tennessee can win this series it may be the most impressive series win in the Vitello era.
Arkansas will have the home crowd but the Razorbacks have had issues in situations similar to this before not getting the job done on the road to Omaha.
It’s going to be a fascinating series between two great ball clubs and two tremendous coaches. I have to believe the success of what the Vols have done in the past will play positively into this team’s success this weekend.
Two wins and the Vols are headed back to the Mecca of the sport.
Omaha.