If Tennessee's Opening Day was an audition, Liam Doyle passed.

The right-handed pitcher, who was expected to bolster the No. 3 Vols' largely new-look pitching staff in 2025 after transferring from Ole Miss, impressed in his Tennessee debut, headlining its 15-0 season-opening win over Hofstra in seven innings Friday at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

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Doyle tossed 58 pitches, 42 strikes, 11 strikeouts and allowed just one hit in five scoreless innings to earn the win.

It was also an audition of sorts for the Vols' (1-0) lineup, which featured a two proven bats and some new names. Tennessee combined for 13 hits and scored seven runs in the sixth inning to clinch the run rule.

Hunter High led with three RBIs off of a three-run home run as part of that inning, while Dean Curley and Ariel Antigua each recorded two RBIs.

Tennessee knew it had a lot of power hitting to replace. It didn't need much of it in the first inning.

The Vols scored its first two runs on a single that Hunter Ensley lined off of the glove of Bryce Curry to score Dean Curley and a wild pitch that plated Gavin Kilen.

Cannon Peebles was inches away from sending one to the porches, but it was enough to bring Andrew Fischer across and put Tennessee up 3-0 early.

The hits weren't far behind, though. After Liam Doyle tossed his second-straight 1-2-3 frame, Curley mashed a two-run shot to left-center to stretch the Vols' lead to 5-0 in the bottom half of the second.

Doyle wasn't the only Ole Miss transfer impressing in his debut. Fischer led off the third with a solo shot to right that put Tennessee ahead 6-0. Reese Chapman added another on a ground out to score Peebles.

Hofstra got its first hit off of Doyle in the fourth, but had nothing to show for it after Dylan Palmer tried to turn it into two and was thrown out at second.

Kilen led off the next frame with a triple off the wall in center and scored in the following at-bat off of another wild pitch to push the Vols' advantage to 8-0 with no outs. Tennessee stranded a pair of runners in scoring position that could have added more, but it hardly mattered.

Doyle continued to shove, tossing his 11th strikeout and fifth scoreless frame with just one hit allowed.

The Vols' batting order was silenced for the first time in the bottom fifth, but enacted the run rule with a couple of runs in the sixth off of a Stone Lawless double to the wall in left to extended the lead to 10-0.

Tennessee piled on in the frame. Ariel Antigua was inserted into the lineup in the sixth and made an immediate impact, singling through the left side to add two more runs. Hunter High, another sixth-inning addition, homered to left to score three, upping the lead to 15-0.

Tennessee will go for the series in Game 2 Saturday and will throw right-handed pitcher Marcus Phillips.

Phillips appeared in 19 games out of the bullpen last season, recording a 4.95 ERA. Hofstra will start right-hander Tristan Nemjo.

First pitch is slated for a 2 p.m. ET on SEC Network+, moving up two hours from its previous start time because of weather. Game 3 on Sunday was pushed up to 11 a.m. ET.

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