HOUSTON, TX -- "I want to see what happens when something doesn’t go our way."

That was Tennessee right fielder Jordan Beck's response when asked earlier this week about what he wanted to learn about his team this weekend in Houston.

He then followed it up by saying that he thought the Vols would respond well to adversity. That they did, as on Saturday, No. 17 Tennessee defeated Baylor 10-5.

The Vols (9-1) knocked off the Bears 15 hours after suffering their first loss of the season, a 7-2 loss to No. 1 Texas.

They did so despite Baylor jumping out to a quick 4-0 lead in the top of the first inning before Tennessee even came to the plate.

“You want to come back with a good answer or a good response," Tony Vitello said following the game. "But then you kind of did it double or had an answer within an answer today.

"The first inning didn’t go our way, but it’s good. They’ve kind of made it a theme of this team. That’s something that went well for us last year. And of course there’s a lot of core parts back from last year’s team, but there’s some new guys who have taken up that philosophy as well.”

It didn't look pretty for the Vols early. Starting pitcher Chase Dollander was shaky out of the gate, allowing four runs on two hits, a hit by pitch and a walk.

Baylor (5-5) stole six bases in the process, just two stolen bases short of the NCAA record for steals in an inning.

“The stuff was good," Vitello said. "But maybe it was flattening out and the command wasn’t as good as it was in the second and third inning. Sometimes you see that out of kids. They’re juiced up and wear themselves down. You can only be that hyped up or that excited for so long. Eventually you’re going to drain yourself. He looked to me like he had gotten so many emotions out of his system and had to watch us hit for awhile that he just got out there and pitched the next two innings."

Dollander lasted just three innings. He gave up four earned runs on two hits for the day on just 73 pitches.

The Vols could have stretched Dollander out a little bit more as Vitello mentioned, but they needed to shut down Baylor's running game and that they did by going to Kirby Connell on the mound.

“We had to get Kirby hot," Vitello said. "We could have put (Chase) Dollander out there for another inning even though his pitch count was so high — I think 75 pitches after three innings. If a guy would have gotten on base, we would have brought in Kirby, so we had to get him hot in the first inning because of the run game so we brought him in in that situation and he made us look smart.”

Connell (W, 1-0) not only shut down Baylor on the bases, he also shut them down at the plate.

He allowed just one run over the course of 4.2 innings and four of those innings were scoreless. The lefty gave up one walk and four hits while striking out four.

“Just throwing strikes and controlling the running game," Vitello said of Connell. "The only time they tried to run on Kirby we threw the guy out.

"If you look at the game as a whole I thought we defended well and Russ did everything he could, but when we were throwing strikes and controlling the running game, we were pretty much in control of the game.”

While Connell calmed the storm on the mound, Tennessee's bats went on to score 10 unanswered runs to pick up the win.

After struggling with situational hitting against the Longhorns, the Vols responded against the Bears by hitting .438 with runners on base and .500 with runners in scoring position.

Redshirt-freshman Jared Dickey sparked the offense. After Baylor's four-run top of the first, Dickey led off the bottom half with a double to lead the comeback.

Dickey finished the day 3-for-5 at the plate with two doubles and two runs scored. He's now hitting .615 on the season and is on an eight-game hitting streak to start the year.

“Jared is doing what we want and that’s quality at-bats," Vitello said. "We just want grinder at-bats and Jared Dickey struck out against (Pete) Hansen last night in his first at-bat, but it was a pretty good at-bat overall, especially if you take into account all of the factors. We want someone to set the tone just like we want someone to set the tone on a Friday on the mound."

Tennessee looks to finish the weekend with a winning record when it takes on Oklahoma tomorrow. First pitch is scheduled for 11 a.m. local time.

Freshman Drew Beam (1-0, 0.00 ERA) is Tennessee's projected starter.