Join hundreds of other Tennessee fans in our game thread where you can follow along for live play-by-play updates and commentary as Tennessee goes for a series win over South Carolina
First pitch: 12 p.m. ET
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Here's four quick takes following Tennessee's 5-2 win over South Carolina in game two of the series.
Rounding First: Consistent Saturday Starter
Chase Dollander put together another solid outing, picking up the win after going five innings strong. The righty worked fast, tossing first-pitch strikes to 11 of his 20 batters faced. He struck out seven batters while allowing just one run off three hits. The run was a home run off the bat of Kevin Madden in fourth and was the first long ball Dollander has given up this season.
His pitch count was high today as well – 99 pitches through just five frames. 71 found the strikezone. It wasn’t his best stuff today, but it wasn’t bad. It was good enough to earn the Vols their first SEC series-win of the season.
Rounding Second: Base Running Blunders
If we’re nitpicking this team through the early stages of the season, it would be the unforced errors on the base paths. Tennessee picked up two more such headscratchers on Saturday, running themselves into outs.
No outs in the second inning, Jared Dickey successfully sacrificed Cortland Lawson over to second, but Lawson got greedy and tried to swipe third with no one covering the bag at that moment. He was thrown out anyway as the third baseman got back in time
Later in the fifth, Jordan Beck was caught stealing third with no outs and two on at the time. Tennessee can’t make a habit out of that in Southeastern Conference play – it’ll get you beat.
When asked about the outs on the base paths after the game, Tony Vitello had this to say:
“I think if you’re going to make mistakes, you’d rather be aggressive. I have my say every now and then, but coach [Josh] Elander runs the offense and does a great job with it. I think one of the reasons we are productive offensively Is because of him. He has his phrase to correct those things, so I think we made one mistake, eye-wise. You know, Cortland [Lawson] plays the game hard, so the two mistakes are kind of different. But again, if you’re going to make mistakes, you’d rather be aggressive and having some conviction to you.”
Rounding Third: Beck & Ortega carry the bats
The Tennessee duo were the only to corral multi-hit days for the Vols on the afternoon and were responsible for three of the team’s five runs on the day.
Ortega tallied a two-hit, two RBI day with run-scoring hits in the first and fifth innings. Beck finished the game going 3-for-4 at the plate, scoring two runs and logging a mammoth solo home run in the third inning.
Luc Lipcius (solo home run) and Blake Burke (RBI triple) accounted for the other two base-knocks on the day.
Headed for Home: It’s a track meet
Tennessee stole four bases on Saturday, helping to put runners in scoring position for an offense looking for insurance throughout the close game. Drew Gilbert stole two bases while Jordan Beck and Seth Stephenson stole one apiece.
The Vols stole a season-high six bases back on February 23 against UNC Ashville. UT failed to steal a base in Friday’s 8-3 win over South Carolina.
Tennessee stats
Key Plays:
B-1st: South Carolina 0, Tennessee 2 (+2)
Tennessee first baseman Luc Lipcius launched a solo home run to right field in the first inning to give the Vols an early 1-0 lead. It was his second homer of the weekend.
The Vols would then push a second run across on an RBI single from Jorel Ortega to score Jordan Beck from second.
B3rd: South Carolina 0, Tennessee 3 (+1)
Jordan Beck jumped all over a first-pitch fastball and hit a towering solo home run out to left field. The bomb registered 105 mph of exit velocity.
T4th: South Carolina 1 (+1), Tennessee 3
Kevin Madden drilled a line drive home run out of the ballpark in left-center field. It was only the third hit of the day for the Gamecocks.
B5th: South Carolina 1, Tennessee 5 (+2)
Following yet another base running blunder (the second of the day), Tennessee was able to tack on two more runs of insurance on back-to-back RBI extra-base hits. Jorel Ortega ripped an RBI double down the left field line. Blake Burke followed with an RBI triple down the right field line.
T8th: South Carolina 2 (+1), Tennessee 5
After picking up his second strikeout, working on his second inning out of the ‘pen, Will Mabrey surrendered a solo home run off the bat of leadoff man Brandt Belk. That’s all South Carolina could manage in the inning as the Volunteer deficit was cut to three runs.
This Week's Schedule
Tuesday, March 15
Midweek game – Eastern Kentucky (1) vs. No. 7 Tennessee (7)
Friday, March 18
Game 1 – South Carolina (3) vs. No. 7 Tennessee (8)
Saturday, March 19
Game 2 – South Carolina (2) vs. No. 7 Tennessee (5)
Sunday, March 20
Game 3 – South Carolina vs. No. 7 Tennessee -- 1 p.m. ET
