Tennessee was held to season-lows in runs and hits Tuesday afternoon inside Lindsey Nelson Stadium, but the top-ranked Volunteers had enough defensively to come away with a 4-2 victory over the West Georgia Wolves.
The Vols extended their best start in program history to 17-0 before an announced crowd of 5,461, while West Georgia fell to 8-7 following the first series encounter between the two. The Wolves were picked to finish 12th in the Atlantic Sun Conference preseason poll but limited Tennessee’s big bats to five hits.
“They come in all different shapes and sizes, and you’ll take them in whatever ways you can get them,” Tennessee coach Tony Vitello said afterward in a news conference. “What you want to do is learn from each game, because you’re not going to be the best you can be at the end of the season if you’re not improving and learning. If you lose, it’s a little bit of a harsher lesson.
“There is no reason you can’t find a way to win ugly or in a low-scoring game or a high-scoring game. You can find a way.”
The Vols will now turn their attention to Friday night’s Southeastern Conference opener at home against No. 7 Florida.
Junior first baseman and Ole Miss transfer Andrew Fischer drove in three of Tennessee’s runs, launching a two-run home run to left field in the first inning for a 2-0 advantage and adding a sacrifice fly to right in the sixth that scored Dean Curley to provide the Vols their largest lead of the game at 4-1.
Tennessee had gone up 3-1 in the fifth inning on Chris Newstrom’s single to left that scored Reese Chapman.
“West Georgia came to play today,” Fischer said. “Hats off to them for giving us a run for our money right before we begin SEC play. Games like this are beneficial for us before we play some really tough competition.”
Vitello used nine pitchers for a second consecutive contest, with freshman Brayden Krenzel, the son of former Ohio State quarterback Craig Krenzel, getting the start and working a scoreless first inning. Krenzel was replaced by former McCallie School and Cleveland State standout Austin Breedlove, who allowed two hits but worked through a scoreless second inning.
Thomas Crabtree got the win after entering in the fourth inning and retiring 10 of the 11 batters he faced before coming out with one out in the seventh.
“He calmed the storm like no other,” Vitello said. “You come up with a grand plan of where you’ll put some guys and move some guys around, and it’s nice when someone makes it difficult to take them out of the game. This game was a little choppy, and he calmed things.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.