Tennessee is two games into its baseball season with two seven-inning victories.
The No. 2 Volunteers followed up Friday’s opening 15-0 triumph over Hofstra with Saturday afternoon’s 18-1 shellacking of the Pride before a rain-soaked crowd of 5,249 at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. Marcus Phillips threw four scoreless innings of one-hit ball, which followed Liam Doyle’s debut Friday that featured one hit in five innings.
Hofstra did play Tennessee to a scoreless first inning, but the Vols scored twice in the second inning and four times in the third on their way to another run-rule rout.
“I thought there were a lot of positives,” Tennessee coach Tony Vitello said in a news conference. “I thought Hofstra came out with a little extra edge to them. Yesterday was exciting for all college baseball players, and we got the best of them. They came out today and provided good competition for Marcus, who I thought did a good job of handling the weather.”
Phillips overcame Vols fielding errors in the first and second innings in posting his longest outing with Tennessee since arriving in Knoxville after the 2023 season from Iowa Western Community College. The 6-foot-4, 246-pounder threw only 20 innings last season, notching 22 strikeouts but yielding 15 walks.