It's the safest assumption in sports today: The Tennessee Volunteers are a better college baseball team than the Iona Gaels.
Tennessee proved that over and over again this weekend at Lindsey Nelson Stadium, cruising to 27-1 and 29-0 victories Friday night and Saturday afternoon before finishing things off Sunday afternoon with a 12-2 trouncing in which the mercy rule was implemented after seven innings. Both the 29-0 triumph and the three-game aggregate of 68-3 established new program records for victory margins.
"More than anything, it was fun to watch the guys cheer one another on," Vols coach Tony Vitello told reporters Sunday afternoon. "It's never going to be a perfect weekend, but there was a lot of good stuff."
The No. 15 Vols improved to 7-0 and have outscored opponents 117-7, having swept Georgia Southern by a combined 33-3 on the season's opening weekend and following that with a 16-1 downing of UNC Asheville last Wednesday.
Tennessee began its trampling of Iona on Friday with third baseman Trey Lipscomb hitting for the cycle, becoming just the fourth player in Vols history to turn that trick and the first since 2016. The 6-foot-1, 200-pound senior from Fredrick, Maryland, was a double shy of the cycle Saturday when he was pulled after the fourth inning with the Vols up 10-0.
"It's a rare feat, but I think the nine-RBI night is even more special," Vitello said of Lipscomb's performance to remember.
Lipscomb is hitting .577 through seven games and leads the team with two triples and four home runs. His 26 at-bats have also yielded a team-leading 20 RBIs.
An even bigger story in Tennessee's young season has been redshirt junior pitcher Ben Joyce, who missed last year due to Tommy John surgery. Joyce hasn't even pitched three complete innings in his three appearances, but the 6-5, 225-pounder out of Knox Farragut had 10 pitches against UNC Asheville clocked at or above 100 miles per hour, including multiple throws at 103.
Joyce said he hit 100 a "couple of times" before the surgery and that he was sitting in the mid 90s.
"He didn't hit 104, so that was disappointing," Vitello joked after last Wednesday's outing. "He's got tremendous stuff, and it's going to be fun to be a part of his career. He's an abnormal kid with an abnormal work ethic, and fortunately he's been blessed with abnormal stuff, too."
Said Joyce when asked about his role: "Whatever it kind of shakes out to be throughout the season is good with me. I'm ready to do whatever I need to do."
The Vols are scheduled to host East Tennessee State on Tuesday before facing No. 1 Texas in Houston on Friday.
"I don't think we're a top-10 team at this point," Vitello said, "but I do think we've got two groups who can compete with a lot of teams in the country, if not most."
As Iona can attest.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.