As NCAA Tournament looms, Tennessee baseball more confident in bullpen

The Vols had seemingly diminished the best chance LSU had at swinging momentum with a Cal Stark back-pick at first base that stranded the bases loaded in the eighth inning of the conference tournament title game last Sunday at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium, but the Tigers were threatening again down to their last two outs.

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LSU scored two runs in the frame to cut the Vols' lead to one and were one swing away from potentially walking it off. Aaron Combs, who entered from the bullpen with one out and a runner in scoring position gave up an RBI double but struck out the next two batters he faced, securing a 4-3 victory and capping a five-game stretch in as many days that taught Tennessee more about its pitching staff than it knew going in.

"I kept saying (to the pitching staff), especially with this group that we are facing today, and the crowd gets excited, we don't need zero. Don't put that pressure on yourselves," Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello said. "We just need you to go out and throw strikes, and it's a staple of Coach (Frank Anderson's) staff. So if you are talking about throwing strikes and guys that are capable of going, we had no questions about our depth. But what version are you going to get out of each guy?"

What Tennessee got was a stellar relief outing from freshman Dylan Loy, who took over for starter A.J. Russell in the second inning and tossed 4.2 scoreless innings, allowing just two hits and striking out five.

Heading into the tournament, Loy had played just 0.1 inning in an SEC game. He made a brief appearance in the Vols' 13-5 loss to Vanderbilt to open the tournament but came back with a performance that was paramount in Tennessee claiming the title.

"i just went in trusting (Stark) behind the plate," Loy said. "What was working so well for me and him and him calming me down throughout the whole thing."

"I think as a freshman coming into a ballgame like that, I thought he would be a lot more amped up and stuff," Stark added. "But I could see him out there breathing which was a good sign from me. And he just competed his tail off."

Loy and Combs were one of a handful of Tennessee pitchers that made the most out of their appearances in Hoover.

The pitching approach in their first game against Vanderbilt was similar to a midweek game, giving a number of arms experience in a double elimination game.

As the games wore on, though, the Vols' bullpen became more of an asset.

In an elimination game against Texas A&M and through the first 4.2 innings vs. Mississippi State two days later, Tennessee's familiar contributors in A.J. Causey and starter Drew Beam led the way.

But when the Vols ran into trouble and lost their lead in the fifth inning against the, Combs, Andrew Behnke, Kirby Connell and Nate Snead combined to limit Mississippi State to just two hits and no runs over the last four innings en route to a 6-5 win.

The following day, junior college transfer Marcus Phillips was the hero.

Phillips pitched the final three innings in relief of starter Zander Sechrist in Tennessee's semifinals bout with Vanderbilt, giving up four hits and one earned run with three strikeouts but his biggest moment came in the eighth inning, getting out of a bases-loaded jam to keep the Vols in front.

He stranded two more runners in the ninth to headline a 6-4 win that sent Tennessee to the championship game.

"I think just (Phillips) conviction (was different). You can kind of see it when he's steering it in there," Vitello said. "...You could see from the get-go that (the ball) was coming out of his hand with conviction, which at the end of the day, that's what being a competitor is, is put your best stuff or your best approach out on the field and just see where it gets you."

Aside from a trophy, Tennessee's biggest take away going into the NCAA Tournament, where it is the No. 1 overall seed for the second time under Vitello, is that it can more rely on players like Loy, Phillips and Combs in high pressure situations with a lot more on the line.

The Vols begin their quest for a third College World Series appearance in four years on Friday against Northern Kentucky in the Knoxville Regional, which also includes Southern Miss and Indiana.

"(The SEC Tournament) was huge," Vitello said. "I think the biggest thing was for those guys to put their cleats in the dirt, and have that crowd, and the opponent that certainly brings talent to the table, and be in those situations where you kind of have to grasp mentally what’s going on...I think you saw Andrew (Behnke), Zander (Sechrist) and Marcus Phillips be the very best version of themselves, and if they do that, then the pitching staff kind of goes from this to that. So we have confidence in those guys and Frank (Anderson) said it halfway through the year, he can’t remember a staff where the numbers are spread out this evenly. Obviously with Drew Beam leading the way, but even for the most part, some of his outings ending shorter.

"Not because he’s not capable, but we trust the guys in the bullpen. We trust those guys and now they can trust themselves a little bit easier because they can take confidence on what they’ve done.”

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