OXFORD — Evan Russell stated following Tennessee's sweep of South Carolina to open SEC play last weekend that the Vols had intentions of causing quite a bit of ruckus throughout conference play this season.
It didn't take long for Russell's words to ring true.
No. 5 Tennessee traveled to Oxford this weekend for a date with No. 1 Ole Miss. Swayze Field at Oxford-University Stadium was the host to three sellouts and the center of the college baseball world.
Tony Vitello's Vols promptly swept the top-ranked Rebels and announced to the country that they were the best team in the sport.
"Our whole team is ready to fight and ready to win," Evan Russell said following Sunday's win. "We came out and kicked them in the teeth pretty good on Friday. They were expecting a different result the next day, but kudos to our guys for not getting too high on emotions and being able to come out and play our game.
"As long as we play our game and don't kick the ball around, we have the ability to beat a lot of teams."
Tennessee opened the series on Friday night with an emphatic 12-1 win before delivering yet another emphatic win on Saturday night, 10-3. It then closed out the series with a 4-3 win on Sunday.
The offense produced throughout the weekend, scoring 26 runs on 36 hits, but it was Tennessee's starting rotation that set the tone.
"They just have confidence," Redmond Walsh said about Tennessee's rotation of Chase Burns, Chase Dollander and Drew Beam. "You watch Chase Burns pitch on Friday pitch in Swayze, which is one of the loudest environments in college baseball and he just acted like it was another scrimmage.
"Same with Dollander. They just all compete to be Friday guys and that's what you love about them. The crazy thing is they're all young and they have a lot more years here."
Ole Miss entered the weekend with one of the most productive lineups in the country.
The Rebels had scored the 11th-most runs in the nation and second-most in the SEC entering the weekend. Against Burns, Dollander and Beam, they produced just two runs and struck out 27 times.
“It’s going to be a staple for as long as we’re all here because of (pitching) Coach (Frank) Anderson, but each guy kind of got a little better in each area," Tony Vitello said. "That’s what you want. You want to keep improving. You like to win, so you build confidence and everybody is happy, especially on the way home. But you’re in this whole thing to challenge yourself and see how good you can get.
"Those guys are young guys. Chase Dollander as well. To improve and at the same time win is a great combination, but if you keep improving then eventually you’re going to win anyhow.”
“It’s hard to think what this team is going to look like when we have Blade Tidwell and Seth Halvorsen because to be honest, I don’t know that we haven’t skipped a beat with the three guys we’ve had on the mound," Russell added. "To have those guys coming back and be healthy, it’s just going to stack us up even more. We have a lot of options and a lot of different looks.
"To have three guys like that who have never been in this league before, to have them come out and set the tone for what they want to do and what they want the team to complete shows that we have a lot of guys who are on board and take control throughout the year.”
Tennessee will be ranked No. 1 in the country come Monday morning following its dominating sweep of Ole Miss.
It'll be the first time in the program's history that the Vols will hold the top spot, but to this team, it's just a number. They have bigger aspirations.
"It's really cool, but being ranked No. 1 means nothing to us," Russell said. "We have a bigger goal in mind. And we play Vanderbilt next week."
