KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The 2024 Tennessee baseball team has stars galore in its lineup including five players with 17-plus home runs this season. Despite an unconventional approach to the pitching staff, the Vols have a handful of highly effective pitchers that could be early draft picks.

But it was the unheralded and oft-maligned veterans that made Tennessee’s sweep through the Knoxville Regional and its 12-3 victory over Southern Miss on Sunday night look as easy as it was.

Zander Sechrist was a career midweek pitcher entering this season and even when he opened the year as a weekend starter for Tennessee, there was a prevailing thought that he was a place holder before younger, more talented arms developed into the role. While Sechrist isn’t one of Tennessee’s three most effective pitchers in its peculiar pitching structure, he’s undoubtedly a reliable and effective left-handed arm in pitching coach Frank Anderson’s arsenal.

The quirky senior proved he’s a team favorite because of his extreme toughness and competitiveness in addition to his light hearted humor against the Golden Eagles. Sechrist spent minutes on the ground when a 105 MPH Davis Gillespie liner struck him on the outside of his left knee to lead off the fourth inning.

The senior not only stayed in the game but worked out of the inning unscathed. Sechrist allowed three unearned runs on an evening his defense did him few favors but his 4.2 inning outing once against put Tennessee in a solid spot.

“I think it just shows what type of teammate he is. He’s a tough guy,” catcher Cal Stark said. “He’s going to go out there and compete. You know whenever something like that doesn’t go his way, he’s going to have everyone one of our backs.”

“He’s a tough kid in his own way,” Tennessee coach Tony Vitello said. “He’s the definition of a quirky lefty, a lovable kid and a great teammate. Somehow, it’s kind of odd how he gets out there and is as much of a competitor as Hunter Ensley and Cal Stark.”

Few Tennessee players have faced more criticism than Stark in recent years. The Vols’ backstop continued his bounce back season with one of his best weekends at the plate, reaching base in seven-of-14 plate appearances and hitting three home runs over the weekend.

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His fifth inning solo shot gave Tennessee the lead against Southern Miss and his three-run ninth inning shot was the exclamation point on a once tight game that had turned into a route.

“We could dissect why he’s gotten better offensively or why he’s gotten better over the course of four years, but I think they all fall under the umbrella of he meets challenges head on,” Vitello said.

The disdain Tennessee center fielder Hunter Ensley faced as recently as a month ago was more ridiculous than any others faced. One of the Vols’ top hitters on a College World Series team a season ago, Ensley struggled at the plate for much of the season while playing stout defense in center field.

Ensley was hitting .238 entering Tennessee’s series final at Florida on May 3. In 17 games since then, he’s hitting .393 with a .534 on-base percentage, three home runs, seven doubles and 18 RBIs.

“I’m as much for competition as anybody, but when you do have experience and we know truly what you can do in games, it does give you an edge,” Vitello said on his trust in Ensley. “Based off what he did for us last year in so many different situations, you can’t erase that. … We kind of pay attention to certain things that are just always there. Whether it be taking charge in the outfield, being able to be one of the better center fielders in the country, defensively, being an aggressive and really good baserunner and being a fighter at the plate.”

The redshirt junior center fielder is now hitting .285 on the season after recording five hits and reaching base nine times over the weekend.

Tennessee’s does have and has had plenty of elite talents under Vitello. Those guys are a big reason why Tennessee is back in the super regionals for a fourth straight season. But whether it be Will Heflin and Pete Derkay or Sechrist, Stark and Ensley— unheralded veterans always find a way to make a major impact on Vitello’s squads.

The trio of seniors are playing their best baseball of the season for Tennessee right now and that’s just making the top-seeded Vols look all the scarier. Their performances made a regional a drama free weekend, something you don’t often see.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) – Tennessee is seeking its seventh regional championship in program history, taking on No. 2 seed Southern Miss in the regional championship round of the Knoxville regional.

The Volunteers will have two opportunities to defeat the Golden Eagles once to advance to a fourth straight Super Regional.

It’s the first time the two programs have met since the 2023 Hattiesburg Super Regional.

Southern Miss battled back from the loser’s bracket, defeating Northern Kentucky 6-0 on Saturday and Indiana 15-3 earlier on Saturday to punch its ticket to the regional finals.

It’s the first time the two teams have met in Knoxville since 1991.

Southern Miss is the home team for today’s game.

Follow along with updates below. Scoring plays are listed in italics.

TOP FIRST INNING

A Blake Burke walk was erased by a Billy Amick double play as the Vols were unable to score in the first inning for the tenth straight game.

BOTTOM FIRST INNING

A leaping grab from Christian Moore helped Zander Sechrist retire Southern Miss in order to close the first.

TOP SECOND INNING

Dylan Dreiling led off the inning with a double down the left field line.

Hunter Ensley drove in Tennessee’s first run of the game with an RBI single | Tennessee 1, Southern Miss

Ensley was thrown out on an attempted steal of second.

BOTTOM SECOND INNING

A second scoreless frame from Sechrist kept the Vols up 1-0 after two innings.

TOP THIRD INNING

Cal Stark drew a leadoff walk but was unable to advance further.

BOTTOM THIRD INNING

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Tennessee baseball is sitting in the driver’s seat of the Knoxville Regional after its 12-6 win over Indiana. The win set up the Vols to be one win away from earning a spot in the Super Regionals. Tennessee would host the winner out of the Greenville bracket for a spot in Omaha. 

The Hoosiers struggled to slow down the Vols at the plate. They didn’t sit the Vols down 1-2-3 until the seventh inning. Tennessee’s bats totaled 12 runs on 13 hits, with five home runs throughout the game. 

Drew Beam and the pitching staff struggled to keep Indiana at bay for moments throughout the game. A Devin Taylor three-run home run in the third inning gave the Hoosiers some life, followed by a run scored off a base hit in the fourth inning and two runs scored in the eighth. 

Andrew Behnke took over for Beam in the fourth and carried the Vols throughout the heart of the game, getting the Vols to the eighth inning with an eight-run lead. The bullpen struggled to finish off Indiana in the game’s final two innings. 

In the eighth inning, Marcus Phillips came in relief but didn’t last long. Dylan Loy became the second Tennessee pitcher to take the mound in the eighth inning after Phillips gave up an earned run and only recorded one out. 

Loy couldn’t slow down the Hoosiers either, giving up another run on nine pitches without recording an out before being pulled. The third pitcher of the eighth inning was Tennessee’s leverage pitcher, Aaron Combs, who came into the eighth with one out and runners on first and second base. 

Combs wasted no time retiring the next two Indiana batters, getting the Vols out of the jam, and putting them three outs away from advancing through the winner’s bracket. Combs remained in the game for the ninth inning but faced trouble shutting down the fighting Hoosiers. 

He ultimately got the job done after allowing two hits, saving another arm for the Vols ahead of Championship Sunday and sending the Vols to the final round of regionals. Tennessee’s pitching staff totaled ten strikeouts while allowing six runs on 11 hits throughout the night. 

After a stressful final two innings, the Combs and the Vols shut the door on Indiana. The offense carried the Vols to the win, posting double-digit runs and 21 total runs over the first two games of the NCAA Tournament. 

With Indiana’s loss, they will face Southern Miss on Sunday at 12:00 PM ET. The winner of that game will face Tennessee in a win-or-go-home game at 6:00 PM ET. Tennessee will have some wiggle room on Sunday and would need to lose twice to be eliminated, with the second game taking place on Monday if necessary.