BamaCentral Courtside: Alabama 90, South Carolina 71
Tennessee baseball improved to 7-0 Sunday afternoon, completing the series sweep of Iona with a, 12-2, run-rule victory in seven innings at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. The Vols decimated the Gaels, out scoring them 68-3 over three games.
The 68 runs broke a program record for most runs scored in a three-game series. The previous record was 59 runs which Tennessee posted against Tusculum on April 1-3, 1909.
“More than anything it was fun to watch the guys cheer each other on,” Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello said. “They made it so easy on us as coaches the first two days to almost play — I don’t know if chess is the right deal — but put all the pieces where we wanted and you felt really good at the end of both games. Today, we weren’t able to play a full nine innings and you weren’t sure if that’s going to be the case, so we made a couple mistakes on the bases and lost a couple at-bats, but as close to — it’s never going to be a perfect weekend — but a lot of good stuff from this weekend.”
Tennessee emptied its dugout on the weekend, playing 18 different positional players and 17 players in all three games.
The Vols’ offensive success was a complete team effort as all 18 Vols recorded hits, 16 Vols drove in at least one run, 14 Vols recorded an extra-base hit and eight Vols hit home runs.
“The energy was unmatched,” catcher Jared Dickey said of the dugout. “We were locked in every pitch through every game so that was awesome to see.”
While every Tennessee position player contributed to the weekend success, a handful of Vols had monster weekends.
Trey Lipscomb hit for the cycle on Friday night and came just a double short of hitting for the cycle on Saturday. The Vols’ new starting third baseman had a breathtaking weekend against the overmatched Gaels’ pitching staff.
Lipscomb went 10-of-12 at the plate with three doubles, two triples, two home runs and a staggering 12 RBIs. The Maryland native’s OPS on the weekend was a breathtaking 2.750.
“Without trying to give you any eyewash or anything, I felt as confident in him as any player since I’ve been here and there have been some good ones,” Vitello said of Lipscomb Friday. “Just knowing he’s going to be prepared, knowing he’s going to do the right things. Defense and pitching is what we want to be the core of what’s going on. Josh (Elander) spends so much time baserunning with the guys and a lot of that is just hard work and thought process, and he’s as good at all those things as you can imagine. When he’s in the box, even if it’s a slow night for him or he’s struggling, he’s so dang strong now compared to what he was as a freshman all he has to do is touch it, kind of like he did on the two strike one tonight, and it’ll go.”
While Vitello knew it was Lipscomb’s time entering the season, little was expected of redshirt-freshman Jared Dickey. The reserve catcher continued his red-hot success at the plate, hitting five-for-six with five walks and two home runs on the weekend.
“I really didn’t know,” Dickey said of his batting average above .800. “Somebody said it in the locker room this morning, ‘are you going to keep hitting’ above seven and I was like ‘what are you talking about’ and then he mentioned that. Hopefully, I can keep it going for a while.”
Tennessee returns to action on Tuesday for a midweek tilt with ETSU. First pitch is at 6:30 p.m. ET at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
