Tennessee responded from a heartbreaking loss yesterday with a dominant, run rule win over Mississippi State.
Mississippi State 2 8 0
Tennessee 12 15 0
W — Chad Dallas, L — Christian MacLeod
Notes
That was a pretty dominant effort from Tennessee. Mississippi State was squarely on the super regional host bubble entering today and needed a win. The Bulldogs threw their best starter and two of its best relievers, one right when they went to the bullpen and another in the eighth inning. If there was any doubt entering the day, the win should lock Tennessee into a super regional host.
As has been the case frequently lately, the back of Tennessee’s lineup sparked the scoring early in this one. In the second inning, Evan Russell walked and Luc Lipcius was hit by a pitch leading to a two-out, three run home run from Pete Derkay that gave the Vols the lead. Tennessee wasn’t done on the inning either as a Connor Pavolony double and Liam Spence single extended the Vols lead to 4-0.
Speaking of Spence, I mentioned yesterday in the live thread and on the Diamond Vols podcast with Ben that he looked much more like himself and that certainly showed up today. Spence went 3-for-4 at the plate with a walk and two RBIs. Drew Gilbert looked better too. He had one hit in his previous 14 at-bats entering today and went 2-for-5 with a pair of RBIs.
I thought the biggest part of the game was the top of the third inning. Mississippi State tallied a run and had runners on the corners with one out. Chad Dallas got a strikeout for out number two before hitting a batter to load the bases. Mississippi State’s Camren James worked back from being down 1-2 in the count to make it 3-2 before Dallas got him swinging to end the inning. From there the Bulldogs did very little to threaten Tennessee’s lead. The two strikeouts to get out of the jam were Dallas only on the game but the redshirt-junior was sharp allowing just six hits and one run in 6.2 innings.
Another important aspect of Dallas’ outing and the run rule was its ability to save Tennessee’s bullpen. Redmond Walsh threw just 21 pitches and was the only reliever the Vols used. Dallas was at 48 pitches through three innings and it looked like he may not make it deep into the game but Dallas got through the next three innings throwing just 33 pitches.
With the win today, Chad Dallas becomes the first Tennessee pitcher to win 10 games in a season since both Luke Hochevar (15) and James Adkins (10) did it in 2005.
Tennessee will now face the loser of the Florida and Alabama game Friday at 4 p.m. ET. Tony Vitello didn’t commit to a starting pitcher but you have to imagine that it’ll be Blade Tidwell.
Quotes
Tony Vitello on what he saw from Chad Dallas
“His first scrimmage inning on our campus, if I'm not mistaken, was a leadoff double. We thought a lot of Chad. That's why he's on our campus. It was just kind of interesting. The guy smoked the ball, and then he almost turned into a different guy with that runner on second, and he left them standing there in the scrimmage inning. Any time you say something about your team, you can look at individuals and pick apart. Call it bounce-back or some toughness or some resiliency, he seems to be at his best when his back is kind of up against the wall. But if you're just going to go the start of innings or the start of games, the beauty of coaching that kid is you've kind of got a level of consistency there. He's not perfect, nor is anyone else. But you kind of get a consistent lead into the weekend or lead into the game, and I've said it over a million times. Our guys really love that, and they play behind them.”
Vitello on the offense today
“Yeah, I feel if you put together competitive or quality at bats, odds will be in your favor, and that could be over the course of a game, a weekend, or a season or a tournament. But you're not always going to get what you want. Even if you throw a good pitch, especially with the high level of competition, the guy might square it up. Even though you maybe make a great play or turn the double play, the guy may beat it by a step. I spoke on the toughness part of our team. I think those guys are willing to put bad at bats behind them and compete or a bad swing behind them. Again, if you have those types of at bats, you'll find enough holes in that stuff. Mississippi State hammered a couple of balls too that we caught too, but at the end of the day, you make your own breaks.”
Vitello on the importance of jumping out to a big lead and making the pitching plan for the weekend easier to navigate
“No one's bags were packed today. It may have been an obvious deal. Just to flip it and look at Mississippi State, had the good pleasure of legendary coach Ron Polk is around the facility. We were kind of chitchatting and worrying about next week. Those guys are ready. Their fans will be ready, and the SEC will have any team that maybe left here earlier than they want to, which is pretty much everybody unless you win the dang thing. The conference will have everybody ready. They would have us ready regardless of how we go into the regional play. No. But what it really, really does, Blade was in relief today or at least was going to be available. We were not forced to do that, and then he gets one more start repetition-wise, if we use him tomorrow. At the very least, it will be good to continue to get some guys some reps going into next weekend. Again, nothing's in a perfect, dainty, nice little box, but our guys get another chance to compete in Hoover, which I know is what they wanted.”
Vitello on Spence breaking out of his slump
“Yeah, if you go back to even South Carolina, a couple of hard-hit balls in particular to right fielders, and yesterday hit a couple of missiles. With the theme of -- again, our team, you could either let that beat you down, or you could come back with a little bit more determination. There was something going on there with him and the cages. You just kind of felt it. He was determined to keep plowing ahead and just determined to have a good day, and the swings delivered the same message or kind of said the same thing about the kid. I hope I didn't step in front of him in his post-game interview, but he deserved that one. We're obviously pretty dang blessed to have that guy leading off for us.”
Pete Derkay on what he saw on his home run
“To go back to that at bat, was really trying to hit a ball back up the middle. With two outs, hit a low line drive, and he kind of left me a little mistake over the middle, put a good swing on it. I had to talk to it a little bit to get over, but luckily it did.”
Derkay on the confidence scoring 12 runs against Mississippi State’s best pitchers give them
“It's a lot of confidence. We have a really good team and have a really good lineup, 1 through 9, and we kind of -- like we kind of care who's on the other side, but we also really don't. It's more kind of focused on us and just trying to put together a quality at bat and get it to the next guy, and we did that very well today.”
Chad Dallas on if he’s a morning person
“I'm not really a morning person at all. My alarms have to be really loud, but I can if I have to be.”
Dallas on his mindset getting out of the third inning
“My mindset through that, I gave them a couple free bases, and free bases turned into runs. Just my mindset during that inning was just fill up the zone and they'll hit into a ground ball or a pop-up. Just get an out, you don't have to do it all by yourself. You've got a lot of guys back there helping you out.”
Mississippi State 2 8 0
Tennessee 12 15 0
W — Chad Dallas, L — Christian MacLeod
Notes
That was a pretty dominant effort from Tennessee. Mississippi State was squarely on the super regional host bubble entering today and needed a win. The Bulldogs threw their best starter and two of its best relievers, one right when they went to the bullpen and another in the eighth inning. If there was any doubt entering the day, the win should lock Tennessee into a super regional host.
As has been the case frequently lately, the back of Tennessee’s lineup sparked the scoring early in this one. In the second inning, Evan Russell walked and Luc Lipcius was hit by a pitch leading to a two-out, three run home run from Pete Derkay that gave the Vols the lead. Tennessee wasn’t done on the inning either as a Connor Pavolony double and Liam Spence single extended the Vols lead to 4-0.
Speaking of Spence, I mentioned yesterday in the live thread and on the Diamond Vols podcast with Ben that he looked much more like himself and that certainly showed up today. Spence went 3-for-4 at the plate with a walk and two RBIs. Drew Gilbert looked better too. He had one hit in his previous 14 at-bats entering today and went 2-for-5 with a pair of RBIs.
I thought the biggest part of the game was the top of the third inning. Mississippi State tallied a run and had runners on the corners with one out. Chad Dallas got a strikeout for out number two before hitting a batter to load the bases. Mississippi State’s Camren James worked back from being down 1-2 in the count to make it 3-2 before Dallas got him swinging to end the inning. From there the Bulldogs did very little to threaten Tennessee’s lead. The two strikeouts to get out of the jam were Dallas only on the game but the redshirt-junior was sharp allowing just six hits and one run in 6.2 innings.
Another important aspect of Dallas’ outing and the run rule was its ability to save Tennessee’s bullpen. Redmond Walsh threw just 21 pitches and was the only reliever the Vols used. Dallas was at 48 pitches through three innings and it looked like he may not make it deep into the game but Dallas got through the next three innings throwing just 33 pitches.
With the win today, Chad Dallas becomes the first Tennessee pitcher to win 10 games in a season since both Luke Hochevar (15) and James Adkins (10) did it in 2005.
Tennessee will now face the loser of the Florida and Alabama game Friday at 4 p.m. ET. Tony Vitello didn’t commit to a starting pitcher but you have to imagine that it’ll be Blade Tidwell.
Quotes
Tony Vitello on what he saw from Chad Dallas
“His first scrimmage inning on our campus, if I'm not mistaken, was a leadoff double. We thought a lot of Chad. That's why he's on our campus. It was just kind of interesting. The guy smoked the ball, and then he almost turned into a different guy with that runner on second, and he left them standing there in the scrimmage inning. Any time you say something about your team, you can look at individuals and pick apart. Call it bounce-back or some toughness or some resiliency, he seems to be at his best when his back is kind of up against the wall. But if you're just going to go the start of innings or the start of games, the beauty of coaching that kid is you've kind of got a level of consistency there. He's not perfect, nor is anyone else. But you kind of get a consistent lead into the weekend or lead into the game, and I've said it over a million times. Our guys really love that, and they play behind them.”
Vitello on the offense today
“Yeah, I feel if you put together competitive or quality at bats, odds will be in your favor, and that could be over the course of a game, a weekend, or a season or a tournament. But you're not always going to get what you want. Even if you throw a good pitch, especially with the high level of competition, the guy might square it up. Even though you maybe make a great play or turn the double play, the guy may beat it by a step. I spoke on the toughness part of our team. I think those guys are willing to put bad at bats behind them and compete or a bad swing behind them. Again, if you have those types of at bats, you'll find enough holes in that stuff. Mississippi State hammered a couple of balls too that we caught too, but at the end of the day, you make your own breaks.”
Vitello on the importance of jumping out to a big lead and making the pitching plan for the weekend easier to navigate
“No one's bags were packed today. It may have been an obvious deal. Just to flip it and look at Mississippi State, had the good pleasure of legendary coach Ron Polk is around the facility. We were kind of chitchatting and worrying about next week. Those guys are ready. Their fans will be ready, and the SEC will have any team that maybe left here earlier than they want to, which is pretty much everybody unless you win the dang thing. The conference will have everybody ready. They would have us ready regardless of how we go into the regional play. No. But what it really, really does, Blade was in relief today or at least was going to be available. We were not forced to do that, and then he gets one more start repetition-wise, if we use him tomorrow. At the very least, it will be good to continue to get some guys some reps going into next weekend. Again, nothing's in a perfect, dainty, nice little box, but our guys get another chance to compete in Hoover, which I know is what they wanted.”
Vitello on Spence breaking out of his slump
“Yeah, if you go back to even South Carolina, a couple of hard-hit balls in particular to right fielders, and yesterday hit a couple of missiles. With the theme of -- again, our team, you could either let that beat you down, or you could come back with a little bit more determination. There was something going on there with him and the cages. You just kind of felt it. He was determined to keep plowing ahead and just determined to have a good day, and the swings delivered the same message or kind of said the same thing about the kid. I hope I didn't step in front of him in his post-game interview, but he deserved that one. We're obviously pretty dang blessed to have that guy leading off for us.”
Pete Derkay on what he saw on his home run
“To go back to that at bat, was really trying to hit a ball back up the middle. With two outs, hit a low line drive, and he kind of left me a little mistake over the middle, put a good swing on it. I had to talk to it a little bit to get over, but luckily it did.”
Derkay on the confidence scoring 12 runs against Mississippi State’s best pitchers give them
“It's a lot of confidence. We have a really good team and have a really good lineup, 1 through 9, and we kind of -- like we kind of care who's on the other side, but we also really don't. It's more kind of focused on us and just trying to put together a quality at bat and get it to the next guy, and we did that very well today.”
Chad Dallas on if he’s a morning person
“I'm not really a morning person at all. My alarms have to be really loud, but I can if I have to be.”
Dallas on his mindset getting out of the third inning
“My mindset through that, I gave them a couple free bases, and free bases turned into runs. Just my mindset during that inning was just fill up the zone and they'll hit into a ground ball or a pop-up. Just get an out, you don't have to do it all by yourself. You've got a lot of guys back there helping you out.”
