By Jay King
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee gets a convincing win over the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles in a midweek game, 7-1. Dean Curley, Blake Grimmer, and Chris Newstrom all went yard, all on two run home runs. The other run was scored by Stone Lawless on a wild pitch from second base.
What stood out in this game was the pitching, as Tony Vitello used 11 different pitchers, none of whom threw more than 25 pitches.
The starter in this game was AJ Russell, who is still rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. He went one inning and only allowed one hit while getting two strikeouts. Russell said this about how he was feeling, “I feel great. I probably could have gone over 20 pitches. I felt great when I was done. I threw a couple extra in the bullpen when it… was all over.” Russell also stated that he would be good to pitch in the SEC and NCAA tournaments.
Head Coach Tony Vitello had this to say about Russell’s return, “It was good that it was efficient, because right or wrong, and maybe put a kind of little extra pressure on the kid, just told him, Hey, it’s gonna be four or five hitters no matter what…he really did abnormal things to get himself back. And, I mean, really, it’s kind of record time… not being over dramatic”
Some other great performances in the bullpen were Dylan Loy and Bryson Thacker. Loy only faced two batters, but struck both of them out, while Thacker closed out the game and struck out the side to clinch the game. Vitello’s take on who pitched well was, “I think there was a glimpse, a little bit for everybody, you know… I was just glad we were able to score enough and play good enough defense, and everybody was able to hand the baton off to the next guy.”
While he did say that everybody pitched well, he specifically mentioned that Loy and Thacker played well, despite Loy not being the same in the last two games, and Thacker sometimes struggling against lefties.
The Vols’ next home game is on Friday, April 4th, as they play host to the Texas A&M Aggies for a weekend series at Lindsey Nelson Stadium in a College World Series final rematch.