NKU baseball in 1st NCAA Div. 1 tournament to face overall No. 1 Tennessee Friday at Knoxville

By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter

On Saturday in Dayton, NKU baseball coach Dizzy Peyton said the way his second-seeded Norse had finished the season – with seven wins in the final eight games and a perfect three straight to capture the Horizon League championship and the program’s first ever NCAA Division I tournament berth while dispatching archrival and top-ranked Wright State on the Raiders’ field and then scoring 23 runs in the championship game against Youngstown State — was “surreal.”

On Monday, Memorial Day, things got real for the never-say-die Norse as they learned where they’ll take their 35-22 record and a hot-hitting team that’s battled back from adversity time and again for this record-breaking season.

NKU’s Horizon champs advance to NCAA/Baseball Tournament for first time ever. (Photo provided)

The Norse, who have scored 20 or more runs in four games this season, are heading to Knoxville for the four-team, double-elimination regional at the nation’s No. 1 overall seed where the opponent will be Tennessee Volunteers, who are a daunting 35-3 at home this season. NKU and Tennessee will play Friday at 7 p.m. at Tennessee’s 8.000-seat Lindsey Nelson Stadium, one of the nation’s premier college baseball stadiums. The game will be televised on the SEC Network.

The other two teams in the Knoxville Regional, who will also face off in a 1 p.m. first-round game Friday are Indiana (32-24-1) out of the Big Ten and Southern Mississippi (41-18), coming off an eighth straight 40-win season. The Knoxville Regional will conclude Monday, June 3.

The good news: NKU fans can drive to the games although they’ll pass through Lexington where the No. 2 UK Wildcats will be hosting another of the 16 NCAA regionals that NKU might have wished it were sent to.

The bad news: Well, the Norse will be facing a team that’s the best of the best – the dominant team in the SEC, which produced a record 11 of the 64 teams in this NCAA field – most of any conference ever. And a team that’s almost unbeatable at home and coming off a championship in the SEC Tournament.

Tennessee will also host a two-team super-regional the following week with the winner heading off to Omaha and the eight-team College World Series. Is there any surprise that the Volunteers are expected to advance to Omaha, as the Vols have in three of the last four seasons?

Tennessee’s No. 1 NCAA-seeded Volunteers are NKU’s first opponent Friday in Knoxville. IPhoto provided)

So what do the Norse take to Knoxville this weekend? How about a team with six .300 hitters at the top of its lineup – Treyvin Moss (.388 with 11 home runs), Tyler Shaneyfelt (.366). Liam McFadden-Ackman (.362 with 21 home runs), Cleary Simpson (.345), Beechwood alum John Odom (.340 with 10 home runs) and Logan Devenport (.316).

A big difference in NKU’s end-of-season run came from the pitching staff with ace Tanner Gillis finishing up 8-2 (4.50 ERA) after overcoming a midseason injury. He was joined by Clay Brock (8-3, 7.07 ERA).

Tennesse Coach Tony Vitello told ESPN that the Vols had better be ready for NKU because “we play a team that beat Wright State two out of three (actually four out of seven) and we have a great deal of respect for Wright State. And they (NKU) also beat Missouri at Missouri in our league.”

Tennessee certainly has the resources to get ready this week as Vitello cited these advantages: “We have (strength and conditioning coach) Quentin Eberhardt and (nutritionist) Beth Schwartz , so our players, that — being worn out from the SEC Tournament — won’t be an excuse,” Vitello said.

“We’ll be playing good teams that are capable of beating us, so we’ll just have to go out there and win on Friday . . . and then we’ll see what’s going on on Saturday afternoon. If anything, at least you know it will be rowdy in Lindsey Nelson Stadium.”

Tennessee will be led by two of the 25 semifinalists for the top award in college baseball – the Golden Spikes Award – in junior first baseman Christian Moore and second baseman Blake Burke . Moore, with 54 home runs, and Burke, with 46, are the all-time career home run leaders in Tennessee baseball. Moore won the SEC triple crown this season with a .429 batting average, 20 home runs and 42 RBI in conference games alone.

Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.

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