Cooper Kupp Dedicates Super Bowl Win To Kobe Bryant
After a slow first few innings for Tennessee’s offense, the Vols used a steady dose of home runs to easily handle Georgia Southern, 9-0, in the season opener.
Much like a season ago, Tennessee’s offense came via the long ball. However, it wasn’t from the predictable contenders.
The Vols hit four home runs in four straight innings (fourth through seventh) building a nearly insurmountable lead.
Trey Lipscomb opened the scoring with a two-run home run to left field and speedster Seth Stephenson followed it up with a two-run line drive shot an inning later.
Jorel Ortega’s three-run shot to center field really opened up the Vols’ lead in the sixth. Christian Scott provided Tennessee’s final run of the game, hitting a pinch hit, moonshot home run to right field.
The junior college transfer Stephenson is known for his speed and contact hitting and the trio of returners combined for just two home runs a season ago.
Lipscomb and Ortega waited their time behind the talented infielders that left Tennessee for professional baseball and their starting jobs are far from guaranteed this season. Both were fantastic in the season opener, putting their best foot forward to begin the season.
“More times than not you’re going to get better as you do something,” Vitello said of the Vols’ stepping into bigger roles. “It helps to get out there. When you’re around guys like Jorel or Trey you see how it works, they talk to you. As long as you’re just being the same guy you’ve been in practice then I think you’re good. You wouldn’t be out there on gameday if what we’re seeing on practice and scrimmage day isn’t good enough. I think it’s key for the guys who are waiting to get their chance kind of follow suit there.”
The third baseman Lipscomb went three-for-four while the second baseman Ortega went three-for-three with a walk.
“It felt great,” Ortega said. “I’m going to be honest with you, when I hit that homer I kind of blacked out.”
Despite a strong opening day for Tennessee’s bats, the story of the day was the debut of freshman pitcher Chase Burns.
The highly touted freshman got the ball on opening day and didn’t disappoint, throwing five scoreless innings.
“Cause he doesn’t act like a freshman,” Vitello said of why he gave the ball to Burns on opening day. “Well, he does when he’s off the field. He doesn’t stop smiling and acts like he’s six years old, actually. Like a lot of great players I’ve coached who are almost two different people in and out of uniform. When he’s on the field he’s very serious about competing, but more evident is— it’s important to him to be great. He wants to be great. … He obviously has advanced stuff but there’s a lot of people across the country that don’t have advanced intangibles and character to go with the advanced stuff.”
Burns retired the first nine Eagles he faced before Jesse Sherrill’s bunt single finally gave Georgia Southern a baserunner in the fourth inning.
The Gallatin, Tennessee native ran into trouble in the fifth inning. Burns surrendered a leadoff walk and a one-out Austin Thompson single gave the Eagles a runner in-scoring position and sent pitching coach Frank Anderson to the mound.
The veteran pitching coach calmed Burns as the 6-foot-5 freshman got out of the jam with a strikeout and a pop out.
“That was key,” Vitello said of the fifth inning. “That inning was his first challenge to kind of muster up everything he needed to get out of it. He kept his composure and really I didn’t see anything different in a negative or positive way, and that’s a good thing. A lot of guys think they have to step up in that situations. I think it’s a lot easier for a guy with good stuff, but bottom line you just kind of keep plugging away and that’s what he did.”
In his first collegiate performance, Burns allowed zero runs, two hits and one walk while striking out five batters in five innings. The freshman threw 70 pitches and 47 strikes in his debut.
“I thought I did pretty good,” Burns said. “There’s a bunch of things to work on after every outing just hoping to keep building on that one.”
Tennessee’s relievers also turned in strong opening day performances. Camden Sewell retired six batters in 15 total pitches while Kirby Connell allowed just one hit while recording the game’s final six outs.
First pitch for game two of the weekend series between Tennessee and Georgia Southern is set for 1 p.m. ET. The game will be streamed on SEC Network+.
