The Tennessee Volunteers finally won a Southeastern Conference road series, and just in time for tournament play.
After No. 13 South Carolina pulled away for a 6-1 victory in Saturday's first seven-inning contest to square the three-game series in Columbia, the No. 18 Vols erupted for a 12-1 thrashing that clinched a winning league season. Tennessee's 16-14 SEC record was bolstered by an 11-4 mark in the back half of the conference schedule.
"I think it's just all the places we've been physically and mentally," Vols coach Tony Vitello said Saturday night about his team's resiliency. "It's been about everywhere. One box we haven't checked is winning two out of three on the road, and we did that.
"I think we did it because of all the things that preceded it."
Tennessee completed a 38-18 regular season and will be the seventh seed at this week's SEC baseball tournament in Hoover, Alabama. The Vols will begin play Tuesday afternoon at roughly 1:30 Eastern against 10th-seeded Texas A&M, a team they swept at Lindsey Nelson Stadium in late March.
Christian Scott tied a career high with four RBIs in the second game Saturday, while Griffin Merritt went 2-for-3 with a home run and three runs scored. Tennessee batted around in the fourth and seventh innings, giving more than enough support for sophomore starting pitcher Drew Beam, who bounced back from a couple of rough outings to allow just one run on five hits over six innings.
"It's always great to get hot at the end," Beam said. "It feels good."
In Saturday's opener, Vitello pulled starter Chase Dollander with one out in the sixth and the game deadlocked 1-1. Dollander opened the inning by recording his 13th strikeout and then yielding just his second hit of the game, but Chase Burns entered and promptly gave up five consecutive hits.
Dollander was at 82 pitches, a total well under the 103 thrown by Friday night starter Andrew Lindsey, who worked into the ninth inning of a 5-0 triumph.
"Obviously at the end of the day, it is not my decision who pulls who and who gets to go pitch and stuff like that, but I felt I had more in the tank that I was willing to give to the team," Dollander said. "It's really all I can say about that."
Dollander described his performance as "the best outing I've had 100%," and Vitello admitted the two seven-inning games may have "overcomplicated things" from a decision-making standpoint.
"When Burns has come out of the pen the past few times, it's electrified our crowd when we're at home and also our dugout," Vitello said. "It was very easy to be dejected after that first game, which our guys were, but then our guys started to loosen up and talked about what they had in front of them.
"Right now, our starters are throwing the ball as well as they can."
Lady Vols roll
Tennessee's softball team, the No. 4 overall seed in the NCAA tournament, will play for the Knoxville Regional championship after thrashing Indiana 9-1 in five innings Saturday at Sherri Lee Parker Stadium.
The whipping of the Hoosiers had an early afternoon start and an evening conclusion following multiple rain delays that resulted in a 7-hour, 17-minute length of game.
A one-out home run to center field by Taryn Kern put Indiana up 1-0 in the first inning and halted the 19-inning scoreless streak by Lady Vols pitcher Ashley Rogers, but Tennessee's deficit was short-lived, as Kiki Milloy opened with a homer to left-center and Mackenzie Donihoo went deep to right-center after a Zaida Puni single to make it a 3-1 game.
Tennessee (46-8) stretched that advantage to 5-1 before the lengthy stoppage when Katie Taylor was hit by a pitch and Milloy homered to right. Rogers wound up pitching all five innings, with the former Meigs County standout allowing two hits and the run while striking out five batters.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.