Tennessee baseball had one of its best pitchers make their season debut on Tuesday.

In the 7-5 win over North Alabama, junior AJ Russell, a potential first-round pick in the upcoming MLB draft, got the start.

While coming off of a Tommy John injury, Russell didn't look it bothered him in any way. In his inning of work, he threw 17 pitches to strike out the side.

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With the plan to toss Russell just the opening frame, he was pulled heading into the second. From there, it was a collection of arms getting the job done. Michael Sharman, Thomas Crabtree, Dylan Loy, Tegan Kuhns, Luke Payne, Austin Hunley, Nic Abraham, Austin Breedlove and Ryan Combs.

This was also Loy's season debut as he's battled back from injury. He allowed a lead-off double before working out of the jam to strand the runner on third with no allowed runs. He struck out one batter in his outing.

After Loy, Kuhns made his debut. He missed the start of the season due to suffering from the flu. He sat down the three batters he faced in order despite all putting the ball in play. He came in the next inning, as well, where he struck out a batter and walked one.

At the plate, Tennessee got all of its production in the first three innings, including five runs in the first. Each run came with two outs.

The only ball to leave the park came off the bat of Gavin Kilen. He hit a solo shot in the third that just snuck out to opposite field.

In his debut, Russell looked as sharp as can be. He sat down all three batters he faced with strikeouts to begin the game. This came in just 17 pitches with 11 coming in as strikes.

Tennessee built off the momentum it got from its starter to explode for five runs in the first inning. All with two outs, Cannon Peebles and Reese Chapman had RBI singles, Stone Lawless walked in a run and Jay Abernathy smacked a two-RBI single.

In the second, Sharman came in to pitch. He got through the inning unscathed. This made way for another two-out run to be scored for the Vols. Chapman hit another single to the opposite field to make it a 6-0 game.

North Alabama got on the board in the third. A single to center scored a pair of runs for the Lions. The hit was off Crabtree but both runs were pinned to Sharman's stat line.

In the bottom of the fourth, Tennessee got one of the runs back. Kilen used a two-out swing to sneak one over the wall in left field.

The fifth inning saw Loy take the mound for the first time this year. He gave up a lead-off double but worked out of it to not allow any runs.

The following inning, Kuhns made his debut. He cruised through his inning of work for a 1-2-3 inning. He would return the next inning while picking up a strikeout before being pulled.

Payne came in next who was promptly pulled for Hunley. The third pitcher of the inning got the job done to get out unscathed.

From there, neither team could do much damage. Both sides rattled through pitchers with occasional base runners being left on base.

This was until the top of the seventh. With two on, Abraham allowed a two-out single which pushed a run across. This made way for Breedlove to enter who got out of the inning.

In the bottom of the seventh, Tennessee loaded the bases. However, the trio were stranded.

With Combs on the mound in the top of the eighth, the Lions pushed across another run. It gets credited to Breedlove, though, who allowed the runner on in the first place. This made it a three-run game late in the match.

In the top of the ninth, North Alabama put two on and the tying run at the plate. A ground out that scored one made it a two-run game with the tying run still at the plate.

Combs was able to silence the threat, though, to hold onto the win.

This weekend, Tennessee will head to Houston to play in the Astros Foundation Classic.

Oklahoma State, Rice and Arizona are on the schedule for teams the Vols will meet during the trip. All games will stream on Astros.com.

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