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It seems fitting that a team that has dealt with as much adversity as Tennessee, starting with opening losses to Arizona and Grand Canyon and ending with a weather-delayed Super Regional marathon series against Southern Miss, faces off against an LSU team loaded with MLB Prospects to open up their College World Series journey.

On Saturday at 7 p.m., the Vols will take on the Tigers at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Neb on ESPN. Not only will Tennessee go up against the No.1 hitting prospect in the country in Dylan Crews, but the Vols will also face the No. 1 pitching prospect in the country in Paul Skenes.

Tennessee will counter on the mound with former Walters State Senator Andrew Lindsey who has asserted himself into that “Friday” starting role for the Vols. Skenes threw against the Vols earlier in the season, going seven innings and allowing one run on five hits while striking out 12 in a 5-2 Tigers win. Lindsey pitched in relief against the Tigers the next day, going 4.2 innings and allowing one run on five hits while striking out three.

Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello has a lot of options on the mound but opted to go with Lindsey to “stay with our routine.”

“Anytime we’ve rolled with what really has got us to this point with Andrew Lindsey first and (Chase) Dollander second and (Drew) Beam third,” Vitello said. “ (Chase Burns) has been incredible out of the bullpen with his stuff and ability to get outs, but he has kind of changed our team’s mentality a little bit too with the emotion he pitches with and having fun out there again as an athlete, but also he gives our guys confidence that the back end of the game is one that we feel like we can win each time we go out.”

The series during the season between the Vols and Tigers was a 2-1 win for LSU, with the Vols salvaging the series with a 14-7 game three win. That series was during a stretch where the Vols played four straight weekends at LSU, at Arkansas, at home against Florida and at home against Vanderbilt.

Coming in a second time around against Skenes, Vitello understands the challenge but also knows his team has faced good pitching in the postseason to get to this point.

“Yeah, he was more than solid,” Vitello said about Skenes. “The one thing when you face a guy like Grice at Clemson, I’m glad our hitters had a better mentality than I did in the dugout because there were moments of doubt. You have to just keep playing, and I’ve been fortunate enough to coach some pitchers, and some of them have also been pitchers we’ve faced where you can see the other dugout kind of deflate. The series was not our best effort, but the kids did keep kind of pushing forward in that series, and it was early, but it was one of the first signs of, okay, we got a little bit of the fight that we want in our program. We finished that weekend off very well on Sunday, but if you date back to Friday or Game 1 of that deal, Skenes was better than us.

“I think there’s probably some info in there that we can pull out, and the guys can take some confidence in maybe we’ve seen him once before. He is probably a different pitcher now than he was then. It’s probably a different LSU team in some areas. I mean, they still have Mr. Crews and all that. We’re a different team too.”

This will be Tennessee’s sixth time at the College World Series and second time in three years. In 2021, the Vols went 0-2 with losses to Texas and UVA.

Camden Sewell and Jared Dickey were both on that UT team in 2021 and took a lot away from what to do and what not to do at the World Series.

“Yeah, I think enjoying the moment and enjoying the environment and everything that’s going on, but still focus on the task at hand and not get too caught up in all the outside activities and everything like that,” Sewell said. “That’s kind of the approach that I feel like needs to be taken this time versus last go-around.”

It hasn’t been all sunshine and roses for the Tennessee baseball team during the 2023 season on their way to the World Series. At the midway point of SEC play, the Vols were sitting at 5-10 and not only looking at an uphill battle to make the NCAA Tournament but also the SEC Tournament.

That weekend Tennessee took on Vanderbilt, who were the No. 2 team in the country at the time. In the opening game, the Vols trailed 3-1 going into the ninth before freshmen Kaveras Tears and Dylan Dreiling hit home runs to send the game to extra innings. From there, Chase Burns was dominant on the mound for the Vols and Griffin Merritt ended the game in the bottom of the 12th with a solo homer.

From that game forward, the Vols went 20-6 on their way to the World Series.

“I think the Vanderbilt game, honestly, a lot of people considered it like a swinging point in our season, but at that point we were just trying to get a win,” Sewell said. “That did kind of turn everything around. A lot of people say that one game like that is how a season turns around, and you don’t point it out, but looking back on it, that was probably the game that kind of turned everything around.”

HOW THEY GOT HERE

The Vols were the No. 2 seed in the Clemson Regional heading into the postseason. The Vols took down Charlotte in their opening game 8-1 thanks to a solid start from Lindsey.

Tennessee went on to face the No. 1 seeded Clemson Tigers in their next game and trailed 4-2 in the ninth inning with two outs. Christian Moore and Blake Burke singled to bring up Zane Denton. Denton, down to his last strike, belted a home run out of the stadium to give the Vols a 5-4 lead. Clemson would tie the game in the ninth and the two teams would battle until the 14th inning when Hunter Ensley doubled home Maui Ahuna to give Tennessee a 6-5 win.

In the Championship game, Tennessee once again took on Charlotte and easily dissipated them 9-2 to advance to the Super Regionals. In the game, Christian Moore hit two home runs and was named the MVP of the Regional.

The win moved the Vols to the Super Regionals where they traveled to Hattiesburg, MS to take on Southern Miss. In game one, a game that started on Saturday afternoon and ended Sunday afternoon because of storms, the Vols dropped their first game of the postseason by a score of 5-3.

However, Tennessee bounced back in game two on Sunday. Trailing 4-0 in the fourth, Merritt got the Vols rally started with an RBI single. Then, Burke came up and cut the lead to one with a 479 foot two-run homer. The Vols continued their fourth-inning rally by loading the bases for Dickey. With two strikes, Dickey delivered with a bases clearing hit that gave UT a 6-4 lead. Tennessee would score two more in the fifth and win 8-4 to force a deciding game three.

In game three, Drew Beam and Chase Burns shutout the Golden Eagles as Tennessee punched their ticket to the College World Series with a 5-0 win. The Vols runs came on an RBI single by Merritt, a three-run bomb by Denton and a solo homer by Ahuna.

ABOUT LSU:

Record: 48-15

How they got here: Defeated Tulane (7-2) and Oregon State (6-5 and 13-7) to advance to Super Regionals. Defeated Kentucky (14-0 and 8-3) in the Super Regionals.

Top Pitchers:

SP Paul Skenes: 17 starts, 12-2, 1.77 ERA, 188 strikeouts in 107 innings

RP Garrett Edwards: 10 appearances, 4-0, 1.93 ERA, 27 strikeouts in 23 innings

RP Nate Ackenhausen: 15 appearances, 2-0, 3.63 ERA, 24 strikeouts in 22.1 innings

Top Hitters:

Dylan Crews: .433 batting average, ,570 OBP, 17 home runs, 64 RBIs

Tommy White: .377 batting average, 22 home runs and 97 RBIs, 22 doubles

Cade Beloso: .316 batting average, 14 home runs and 41 RBIs

Tre’ Morgan: .312 batting average, nine home runs, 47 RBIs