Tennessee’s baseball team didn’t sweep its way through the season-opening Shriners Children’s College Showdown in Arlington, Texas, but the Volunteers racked up plenty of experiences from which to grow.
Which coach Tony Vitello admitted was a chief reason for making the trip to Globe Life Field, the home of the World Series champion Texas Rangers.
“I think these teach you what (NCAA tournament) regional games are going to look like if you haven’t played college baseball before,” Vitello said late Saturday night following a 5-1 loss to Oklahoma in 10 innings. “That was a regional game or a super regional game or a (Southeastern Conference tournament) game in Hoover (Alabama). These are what those games look like.
“These are the ones that when you go back to the hotel it really hurts, which I hope it does for our guys tonight, or if you get it done it feels good.”
The No. 9 Vols opened Friday night with a 6-2 triumph over No. 21 Texas Tech before falling to the Sooners. The first pitch for Sunday night’s finale against Baylor was delayed by nearly an hour due to Oklahoma’s 7-6 topping of Nebraska and Texas Tech’s 11-7 win over Oregon each lasting nearly three hours and 30 minutes, but when the Vols finally got on the field, the result was their second win of the weekend, 11-5 over the Bears.
Tennessee’s home opener is set for 4:30 p.m. Tuesday against UNC Asheville.
“This has been huge for us,” Vols left fielder Dylan Dreiling said Saturday night. “It’s been cool to see some guys out there get their first experience of college baseball, and it’s going to be a huge, huge learning experience for us in the future.”
In Friday’s win over the Red Raiders, Tennessee’s “AJ Show” of pitchers AJ Russell and AJ Causey combined on 17 strikeouts and one walk. Russell was a known commodity for the Vols, having made 24 appearances last season with a sparkling 0.89 earned run average, but Causey was making his Tennessee debut after spending his first two seasons at Jacksonville State.
Both Russell and Causey could be weekend starters in the not-too-distant future.
“His stuff is unreal, and it’s really unfair,” Russell said. “You throw 90 or 92 (mph) from submarine with a changeup that looks the exact same — it’s not fair. He just came out and threw a lot of strikes, and as the game went on, he looked even better.”
Said Vitello: “Causey is a great teammate and is willing to take the ball in any situation. He clearly has a different look, and most guys who throw from down there don’t throw quite as hard.”
Third baseman Billy Amick, the transfer from Clemson, accounted for Tennessee’s first runs of the season with a two-run home run to right field. When asked about Amick after Friday’s victory, Vitello said, “It’s good to see him wearing our orange.”
In Saturday’s setback, Drew Beam, Marcus Phillips, Chris Stamos and Aaron Combs combined to allow one run on seven hits in the nine regulation innings. In the 10th, Combs yielded two walks and a double before being pulled.
Tennessee’s two big highlights Saturday were a 441-foot home run to right-center field by Dreiling in the fourth inning and a triple play in the seventh in which Stamos dove to catch a bunt attempt that was popped up with runners on first and second. Stamos then thew to second base, where shortstop Christian Moore stepped on second and tagged the runner who tried to advance from first.
It was Tennessee’s first triple play since Feb. 22, 1997, against Eastern Kentucky.
“That’s one where I can never remember it being like that,” Vitello said. “C-Mo put about seven tags out there, but however you get the outs, we’ll take them. We’re just trying to get to know our guys a little bit, and they’re trying to know what this is all about.
“They’ve learned a lot being in this deal.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.