No. 7 Tennessee began SEC play in dominating fashion over the weekend.
The Vols (19-1, 3-0 SEC) beat South Carolina 8-3 on Friday, 5-2 on Saturday and 10-0 in the series finale on Sunday to sweep the Gamecocks. Tony Vitello’s crew outscored Carolina 23-5 over the three games.
“It’s not a slam dunk contest unfortunately,” Vitello told the media after Sunday’s game. “A win is a win and a loss is a loss. In the big scheme of things, whether it’s at home or on the road, you just want to scrap up as many wins as you can in the league. And you will take your losses so you have to handle those the right way, too.
“Fans can get excited about whatever it might be, but it’s one game and an opportunity to win, and fortunately our guys seized that moment under a very beautiful sky in Knoxville.”
The Vols won in dominating fashion and Vitello thought the performance was “encouraging” even if he was slow to admit it.
Tennessee struck out 30 South Carolina hitters and hit 10 home runs at the plate. The Vols have now hit at least four home runs in eight games as they continue to lead the nation in dingers.
“We proved that we’re going to keep swinging it and we weren’t just putting up runs against no-name teams,” Vols freshman right-hander Drew Beam said. “We can do it against anybody.”
Beam was the star of Sunday’s win as he took a perfect game into the seventh inning. His strong outing followed dominating outings from fellow freshman Chase Burns on Friday, and sophomore Chase Dollander on Saturday, respectively.
At the plate, Tennessee catcher Evan Russell led the way with three home runs. Five of Tennessee’s nine starters hit .300 or better for the weekend.
“It means a lot,” Russell said of Tennessee’s opening to SEC play. “I’ve been a part of some good teams and one really good team last year. Being able to do that right now, especially going into a gauntlet on the road, seeing some good things, getting every win we can is really crucial. (South Carolina) is a pretty good team and we handled business and played within ourselves and it showed.”
Life in the SEC gets tough quickly for the Vols. After opening at home, they now travel to No. 1 Ole Miss (15-4, 2-1 SEC) and No. 4 Vanderbilt (17-2, 3-0 SEC) the next two weekends.
The Rebels took two of three from Auburn on The Plains over the weekend to start conference play, while the Commodores swept Missouri at home, respectively.
“We have a lot of fans that are angry and they want to win some big games and we have a lot of intentions of going in places and at least causing some ruckus,” Russell said. “If we go in and play our game, no matter who we’re playing we’ll be fine. As long as we go in and get after some people and make people uncomfortable, we'll have a lot of success.
“We don’t have any expectations. We’re just going to go in and do as best as we can and play our game and see what happens.”
In the meantime, Tennessee is going to enjoy its sweep of South Carolina before shifting the focus to Tuesday’s midweek game against Butler.
“We need to say in the mode we are now, but we’ll worry about that (Monday),” Vitello said. “The guys should enjoy themselves today and be kids.”
First pitch on Tuesday night between Tennessee and Butler (9-10) is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET.
The Vols will open the series at Ole Miss on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. ET. Game two on Saturday is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET before wrapping up the series on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET.
