CHAPEL HILL, Nc. -- Tennessee’s 14 year wait to play NCAA Tournament baseball would have to wait a couple more hours due to a weather delay. Delay or not the Vols never got started in a 6-1 opening game loss to Liberty.
After North Carolina defeated UNC-Wilmington, the NCAA announced that Tennessee’s opening round matchup vs. Liberty would be pushed to Saturday. However, a meeting between all four coaches led to the game being played at 10 p.m. Friday night, three hours later than the original start time.
The start on the diamond just went as poorly for the Vols as Tennessee’s ace Garrett Stallings surrendered a leadoff single before Jonathan Embry hit a no doubt home run over the right field wall.
Tennessee looked like it would answer in the bottom half getting runners on second and third with one-out, but Liberty’s Mason Meyer got a pair of Vols to ground out on the first pitch and ended the inning.
Liberty rallied again in the third inning getting a pair of baserunners after Stallings hit Cam Locklear and Will Wagner singled.
Tyler Galazin flew one off the wall in left field scoring a run and giving the Flames runners on second and third with one-out, and a 3-0 lead. Stallings would get a pair of pop outs to end the frame.
Stallings would steady a little after the inning but ran into more trouble in the sixth inning. Brandon Rohrer singled to lead off the inning and Ben Highfill laid down a sac bunt to get him over to second.
Jaylen Guy would single to left field, but Rohrer settled at third base. Zach Daniels throw came in too hard and skipped past Tennessee catcher Connor Pavolony allowing Rohrer to score and for Guy to reach second.
It would be the last runner Stallings would face ending the game with 5.1 innings pitched allowing 10 hits, four runs, three earned runs, and striking out three.
“Obviously, Garrett (Stallings) didn’t have his best stuff,” head coach Tony Vitello said. “In true Garrett Stallings fashion he kind of warriored his way through the outing… If we play better defense behind him I believe it’s a different box score.”
Will Heflin was able to strand the runner on second, but the lefty ran into trouble in the seventh.
Logan Mathieu singled in the middle of a pair of Heflin strikeouts in the top half. Galazin grounded one to Andre Lipcius and the Vols third basemen bobbled it before a bad throw allowed the runner to reach.
Liberty took advantage of the Vols’ mistake as Rohrer singled to center bringing in a pair of runners and giving Liberty a 6-0 lead.
In total, Tennessee had three errors and allowed three unearned runs in the loss.
“You don’t ever want plays on the field that look like little league plays,” Vitello said. “It’s disrespectful to our fans, our program, and the tournament, but it’s also going to happen when you have young kids competing with their heart.”
Tennessee finally found the scoreboard in the seventh inning as Evan Russell led off the bottom half with a solo homer.
After getting a groundout and allowing a single Mason Myers day was done. The soft throwing left hander gave Tennessee trouble all night as he turned in 6.1 innings allowing one run on five hits.
“We had guys pulling off the ball,” Vitello said. “Evan (Russell) is a good example… In his first at-bat he pulled off a lefty, in his next two at-bats he hit the lefty pretty dang good. The answers to the test are there it’s just if you’re willing to do it or not.”
The homer came too little, too late for the Vols as they couldn’t generate anymore offense ending the game with only five hits.
Tennessee’s season is on the brink as they will face UNC-Wilmington Saturday at 12 p.m. ET at Boshamer Stadium.
“We just need to play our ball,” Russell said. “If we play our baseball, I think we’re in good shape. If we come out and don’t worry about who’s in the other dugout and just do what we can do I think we’ll be fine. I know it’s an early game, but I wasn’t going to sleep much anyways, and I don’t think many of our guys are after tonight.”
