The Tennessee baseball team right now may have one of the most comforting debates in all of sports.
Which is more impressive, the present status of the top-ranked Volunteers or the promise of the future?
Freshmen Levi Clark, Manny Marin, Jay Abernathy, Stone Lawless and Chris Newstrom combined to go 7-for-14 with 10 RBIs on Sunday afternoon as Tennessee completed a three-game sweep of St. Bonaventure with a 13-2 rout before 5,701 fans at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. The Vols improved to 16-0 for the best start in program history, with Sunday marking their eighth win via the seven-inning run rule.
Lawless, the only redshirt freshman of the previously mentioned quintet, hit a two-run home run to left-center field in the third inning that put Tennessee up 7-1, then added a two-run homer to left in the seventh that walked the game off.
“Everyone is on board,” Lawless said afterward in a news conference. “Nobody is looking forward too much or caring too much about themselves. I just think we’ve got a great group of guys who want to win for each other.”
Clark served as the designated hitter Sunday, while Marin started at third base, Abernathy in center field and Lawless behind the plate. Newstrom entered the game to replace Reese Chapman in right field and hit a three-run homer to center in the sixth that put Tennessee up 11-2.
Tennessee’s freshmen have sizzled out of the gate, with Clark hitting .513, Lawless .417, Newstrom .417, Marin .414 and Abernathy .353. Lawless has been the backup catcher to Cannon Peebles, while Abernathy got the start Sunday due to a rare day off for Hunter Ensley.
“If you’re only coming to the plate six times in a game, that’s not good for guys like Chris Newstrom, who is showing you what he’s fully capable of doing,” Vols coach Tony Vitello said. “Imagine if he had 100 at-bats under his belt rather than the 12 or 13 or whatever it is.”
Tennessee blew Sunday’s series finale open with a seven-run third inning that began with a Dalton Bargo walk, a Dean Curley single to center and a Gavin Kilen walk. All three would score, with Bargo coming home on a wild pitch, Curley on Andrew Fischer’s sacrifice fly to center and Kilen on Clark’s two-run homer to right that made it 4-1.
Tanner Franklin, a junior transfer from Kennesaw State, got the start for the Vols and was the first of nine pitchers used by Vitello against the Bonnies (7-7).
The Vols return to action at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday against visiting West Georgia before opening Southeastern Conference play on Friday at home against No. 6 Florida.
Russell update
Vols junior AJ Russell, who underwent Tommy John surgery last June, has pitched only one inning this season. He struck out all three batters he faced in the 7-5 win over North Alabama on Feb. 25.
Vitello updated Russell’s status after Sunday’s game.
“To speak openly about it, AJ is an abnormal kid,” Vitello said. “He got ahead of that program quicker than the average guys. AJ just leapfrogged too many things, so I think it’s time for everybody involved to take a deep breath. He’s shown what he can do, but let’s look out for the long run for our season and his career combined.
“We’re going to start a new throwing program to prepare him more to be a starter, and I think we’re talking about more of getting into April. There have been no setbacks. It’s just the opposite. He got going too fast, so it’s just holding your horses.”
One less hour
Vitello often digresses in his postgame interviews, and it was no different Sunday when he brought up daylight saving time and springing forward an hour.
“I didn’t even know that was going on,” he said. “I should have mentioned it to the team. You could feel it in the air that there was one less hour of sleep I think at times.
“I don’t know why we do that to ourselves.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.