Drew Beam has thrown one perfect game in his life. It came in a five-inning high school game that ended early because of a run-rule.

In his first SEC start against South Carolina on Sunday, the true freshman nearly threw a nine-inning perfect game.

Beam flirted with perfection until the seventh inning. On the first pitch of the frame, however, Gamecocks’ first baseman Brandt Belk hit one to the warning track in center. Vols’ centerfielder Drew Gilbert was able to get a glove on it, but it was too difficult of a catch to make.

“That was one of my more fun starts,” Beam told the media after the game. “I had a good amount of command today, so it was good that I can work with any pitch. We had a good gameplan set in stone, so we followed that and got the job done.”

Tennessee catcher Evan Russell knew early in the day that Beam was going to have a special outing. It was evident while they were down in the bullpen prior to the game.

“He was composed as I’ve ever seen a freshman,” Russell said. ”Most of the time whenever freshmen are coming in to pitch in an SEC game, especially their first one, it’s usually tense. They usually don’t have a lot of calmness in their voice and they don’t speak much, but he was having conversations with me.

“His glove-side fastball, he was locating that at will. He had a lot of even counts and behind in the counts where he could throw an outside fastball and even it up or get ahead, so that was the recipe for his success. If he can do that every time, he’s going to be hard to hit.”

The hit that broke up Beam’s perfect game bid was the only hit he allowed on the day. The right-hander never allowed a walk and struck out three as he pieced together 7.2 scoreless innings of work.

“Made it easy to be in our dugout, you felt calm,” Tony Vitello said of Beam’s performance. “The bottom line is he’s a good athlete, competes, throw strikes, and kind of gives you that deal — everybody has their own personality — but kind of gives you that deal that Sean Hunley had last year. A feel good as a coach. You know what you’re going to get every time out, maybe better one day like today.”

Vitello pulled Beam with two outs in the eighth inning at 86 pitches, 67 of which he threw for strikes.

Beam tried to talk Vitello into letting him stay on the bump and finish out the inning, but he knew as soon as Tennessee’s skipper crossed the foul line that his day was done.

“Struggled with whether he was going to go back out or not,” Vitello said. “We just decided to run him back out there, but not for too long. Just kind of went with a little gut feel.”

Beam has quietly put together as strong of a freshman season as you’ll find across the country.

Following his fifth career start of the season to improve to 4-0, Beam has now given up just three runs in 24.2 innings of work. The Murfreesboro, Tennessee native has an ERA of 1.09 and has struck out 19 hitters to just six walks. He's only given up eight hits.

Beam’s freshman season to this point reminds Vitello of Blade Tidwell’s rookie campaign last season.

“Chase Burns, too,” Vitello said. “Blade was very professional in how he would go about his routines and a lot of kids, even though they may train with somebody back home, or they come from a good high school or summer program, a lot of kids at that age just don’t really realize how much time it takes and how much attention to detail it takes. And Blade, as electric as his arm was, he was impressive with how professional he was about his routines, and those two guys are very similar in that fashion.”

It’s no so surprise that Beam comes across as a professional in his rookie season.

Beam played quarterback at Blackman High School in the mid-state. The traits of a quarterback is what Beam has displayed on the mound to this point. Even his first SEC start felt like a big time high school football game on a Friday night.

“You keep everything the same and don’t really change anything,” Beam said. “There was obviously a little bit of extra focus and stuff going into it, but I tried to treat it the same as any other opponent because they’re in a jersey too.”

“Unlike high school baseball, we have a great crowd out here, which is just like high school football, there’s tons of people watching and you’re out there in the middle of the spotlight. It’s easy to compare because the pressure is on you and if you do good things, you get applause, if you do bad things, everyone knows. It’s pressure and I like it a lot.”

Tennessee completed a three-game sweep of South Carolina thanks to Beam’s performance. The Vols outscored Carolina 23-5 over the weekend as their pitching staff tallied 30 strikeouts and the offense smashed 10 home runs.

For Beam, he departed to a standing ovation from the Lindsey Nelson crowd.

“It was a great feeling,” Beam said. “I didn’t want to crack a smile too big, but I was really enjoying it. It was great to walk off the field and see the Tennessee faithful out there behind me.”