LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Bellarmine University baseball team has faced several formidable opponents this season, but the biggest challenge yet may be awaiting the Knights.

At 6:30 p.m. (ET) Tuesday, Bellarmine (7-28) will take on No. 1 Tennessee (33-3) at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. The Vols have played a couple of the Knights' ASUN counterparts thus far, defeating Eastern Kentucky 7-1 on March 15 and Lipscomb 5-1 on April 5.

Tennessee is 25-1 at home and has been terrorizing the SEC, building a 14-1 record in league play that includes sweeps of South Carolina, then-No. 1 Ole Miss, then-No. 3/9 Vanderbilt and Missouri. In their latest conference series, the Vols finally dropped a league game, 6-3 to No. 24 Alabama in the opener, before decisively taking the final two contests, 9-2 and 15-4.

Tennessee's .317 team batting average ranks ninth in the country along with a nation's-best 87 homers. The Vols are averaging 9.7 runs per game, and their 350 total ranks fourth in the country. When not going deep, they find the gaps, tying for third in the land with 93 doubles and tying for fourth with 17 triples.

In a nod to its balance, Tennessee is leading the country in team ERA by a wide margin at a remarkable 2.07 — Southern Miss is next at 2.78 — and the Vols are also 15th in the nation in fielding percentage (.979).

Tennessee will be the latest Power 5 opponent for Bellarmine, which has also faced Virginia, Kentucky (twice), Purdue and Louisville this season.

Bellarmine won the middle contest of its three-game ASUN series at Jacksonville State, topping the Gamecocks 4-3. The Knights were limited to seven total runs in the series after they'd scored 41 in the previous conference series against North Alabama.

After another productive series, Matt Higgins has moved within one home run of tying Chris Gambert (36) for the program's career record. The senior left fielder is now third on the all-time RBI list (167) and just six away from breaking Patrick Brady's record. He's also moved into seventh all-time with 50 career doubles and with 153 career runs scored.

Senior right fielder Jacob Mulcahy is hitting .294 and had a reached base streak of 29 consecutive games. Senior shortstop Clayton Mehlbauer and junior third baseman Peyton Back are tied for second on the team in homers behind Higgins (12) with four apiece.

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