KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — No. 1 seed Tennessee and No. 3 seed Liberty will meet on the diamond on Saturday at 6 p.m. as part of the double-elimination Knoxville Regional. Both teams are coming off of wins on Day 1 of the tournament, but both came in completely different fashions.
Liberty took care of business from the jump against Duke, going up 11-1 against the Blue Devils after four innings. Brady Gulakowski led the way with two home runs and six RBIs against Duke. The Flames were able to rest its arms for most of the game with senior pitcher Trevor Delaite going 7.2 innings against the Blue Devils.
Tennessee, meanwhile, took the opposite approach, staying in a highly contested game until the bottom of the ninth inning, when Drew Gilbert hit a walk-off grand slam to propel the Vols ahead of Wright State.
Tennessee and Liberty have only played four times, the Vols walking away with wins on three occasions. The last two times Tennessee played the Flames was the last baseball postseason. UT and Liberty played in the opening round of the Chapel Hill Regional in 2019, with Liberty coming out on top 6-1. Tennessee then played Liberty two days later in an elimination game, beating Liberty 6-5 in ten innings.
You can watch the two teams play on Watch ESPN. You can also follow along with the Tennessee baseball team on Twitter.