Tennessee baseball went on the road and took the weekend series against South Carolina to end the regular season 16-14 in SEC play.
It was the Vols’ first road series win and kept Tony Vitello’s squad in contention to host a regional.
See what Tennessee pitchers Chase Dollander and Drew Beam as well as outfielder Griffin Merritt said after the Vols’ secured the series win Saturday.
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Drew Beam — 6 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 2BB and 4 K
“Just try and keep it simple, black and white. Keep it to where there’s nothing too big or too small. Stay level-headed and go at it like I have all season.”
On what was working for him
“Curveball, got the feel for it really good. Later in the game, I got the feel for the fastball, spotting it, back again like I used to. Just felt comfortable to be back out there again like I haven’t been in the past few weeks.”
On when he knew he was going to get the start
“I’ve been preparing the whole week. Just prepared the whole week for it.”
On working out of jams early to find comfort
“Getting out of those, the defense made some good plays, gained that confidence back a little bit. It made me a lot more comfortable out there and I think it showed throughout the game. The last few weeks I’ve struggled a little bit, so it was just about getting back to that good mindset where I’m back on it, I control the game, I’m not going off of their hitters, it’s my game, just getting back into that groove.”
On the difference today compared to last two starts
“Letting it go. Clearing the head. Being transparent and going straight at the hitters. Not trying to be too perfect, honestly.”
On Tony Vitello’s message heading into game three
“I honestly don’t know what he said to the team. I wasn’t with the team. To me, it was get out there and be you. Be Drew Beam, don’t be anybody else.”
On what he saw from Chase Dollander in game one of the doubleheader
“Doe (Chase Dollander) is a dawg. His pitches are insane. I like playing catch with him. It’s hard to catch even when you’re playing catch. That dude’s good. He’s going to make a lot of money one day, and he’s just going to keep providing for us on the mound.”
On how challenging it was to respond after the brutal loss in game one of the DH
“The guys came out swinging, and we came playing defense. It’s the end of the season. Teams are good. You’re not always going to sweep everybody. That’s a good ball club over there. So just knowing that, going out, clearing it, and just playing our game was the key today.”
On how important a road series win is
“Obviously, it’s always good to get hot at the end. That’s our main goal and yeah, it’s really good to get that under our belt. It feels good.”
Chase Dollander — 6.1 IP, 2 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 13 K
On what was working well for him
“Honestly, I really had command of all my pitches. Something that I’ve kind of struggled with all year. Having that, finally, being able to use all four of my pitches really helped a lot. Obviously the fastball was working really well today. Felt like it was carrying really well. I used that to my advantage and got a lot of swing and misses.”
On what was different that led to his overall command
“I was just a lot more comfortable on the mound than I have been in awhile. We did some things in the bullpen, just working on the mechanics and trying to get back to what I was doing in the fall and early spring. Just shifted over on the rubber a little bit allowed me to get down on the mound and be more directional and have better direction so I can command all my pitches the way I want to.”
On if he thinks that’s his best outing of the season
“100 percent. I feel like that was probably the best outing that I’ve had. You look back and look at all my outings, I feel like I’ve gotten better and better with each one. Obviously with Mississippi State, you can kind of flush that one down the toilet because I was running a fever while I was trying to pitch. Building off of each outing is just kind of what I’ve done all year, and I’m pretty proud of myself for doing what I did.”
On how much confidence he can take from this performance
“Obviously, we have our postseason starting next week. The confidence I got from this past game, that’s not an easy lineup to do that to, so credit to those guys for fighting, but just having that outing going into the postseason is going to be huge for me and my confidence.”
On how much the first inning helped with this outing
“It’s probably you can say first inning jitters or whatever you want to say. This stadium and this crowd, they’re going to be electric in the first inning, so being able to do that and come back after the home run was huge for me, and trusting the defense behind me as well.”
On his thoughts when Tony Vitello came to take him out of the game
“Obviously at the end of the day, that’s not my decision, who pulls who and who gets to pitch and stuff like that, but I felt like I had more in the tank that I was willing to give to the team and stuff like that. So like I said, at the end of the day, it’s not my decision who he wants to put in, but yeah, that’s really all I can say about it.”
On how the team’s performance in game three eases frustration’s after the game two loss
“The frustration was definitely there after that first game today. So, seeing the team do what they did today, or in the second game I should say, was huge for I think not only us but their confidence as well. I think their coaches probably built their confidence in us a lot more as well just knowing we can come back from a loss.”
On what Chase Burns was lacking in that sixth inning
“It’s really a weird deal because we have similar stuff. It’s not obviously exactly the same, so you can’t really put one thing or another on it. At the end of the day, I feel like it comes down to maybe they saw me the whole time and they were used to seeing that kind of thing or you know, he said something about them having our signs at second or something like that. Maybe that could’ve been it, maybe not. I think for him, he just needs to go out there and just throw it and compete the way he does.”
On the significance of getting a road series win to end the regular season
“It’s huge, especially right before the postseason. It’s freaking huge for us just because it builds our confidence. We’re not guaranteed to go back to Knoxville and play in the Regional, so knowing that we can win a road series is just going to build our confidence for when we go or if we stay home as well.”
On what allowed Drew Beam to be successful in the last game and how big his performance was
“Beam, he’s one of those guys who is going to give you his all when he’s out there. Obviously, he hasn’t had the best outings in the past couple of weekends, but coming back and doing what he did is really huge for him and for the team as well just knowing we can have that confidence in him as well.”
Griffin Merritt — 3-of-11, 1 2B, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 2 BB, 1 HBP, 1 K
On the message between games
“Doubleheaders are always hard. It’s hard to win both especially when you come in for the first game real excited to try and win the series in the first game of course and it just doesn’t go our way. We played a pretty good game until the end and we kind of handed it away in some aspects. You have to flip the page quick. You have 40 minutes to turn the page and get out there for the next game because it’s just as important and we have the opportunity to have our first split series win and take a road series for (the first time) this season. It kind of stung for a minute and let it sit in but turn the page and get ready to go for the next one.”
On if having to turn the page so quickly helped them
“I think that’s a part of it and I don’t think a lot of us thought about it. It’s a quick turn and we didn’t really talk as a team really. V(itello) came in and said, ‘we have food and are starting in 50 minutes. Like be ready to go.’ We didn’t address some of the things that we would normally address after a game like that. We turned the page quickly and got through it.”
On the significance of finally winning a road series
“There’s boxes. We talk about it you check them throughout the year: sweeps, winning at home and the last one is winning on the road. It took us until May 20 to check that box but we checked it. That’s huge going into the postseason where we don’t know if we’re going to be at home or away but we have that checked box in our belt— one of the quotes I talked about earlier. It’s in our belt now that we have a road series win and we can carry that with us.”
On how impressive Beam’s performance was given his recent struggles
“I think that’s big for Beam, especially bouncing back from last week. Not his best outing last week and you saw a page turned and he came out and threw really well. I don’t want Dollander’s effort to be overshadowed in the loss but he was fantastic. In my opinion, that might have been the best I’ve seen him look all year and for a team that’s looking to make a postseason run you want your dudes performing at the end of the season and that was a bright light and Beam threw extremely well and we’re excited to roll that in to the postseason.”
On if Beam working out of jams early allowed the offense to settle in
“You know when you play behind Drew you’re going to get strikes. He’s going to go at batter’s and he’s going to give up some hits here and there but you know he’s going to be in the zone and you know he’s going to compete. As offense that’s good and as a defense that’s good too because you know if there’s a guy on base you know he’s going to get in there and compete with the guy at the plate, he’s going to put the ball in play and get a chance to make a play to get an out so a big thing about playing behind him is you know he’s going to attack hitters and be in the zone.”
On what made Dollander so dominant today
“When you’re sitting 97-98 (mph) in the sixth inning he came out in, that’s pretty impressive. He just kind of trended up the whole day. His fastball looked like it had really good ride on it. He had better control of his slider. For him, I think he was just throwing more strikes than he has at some point in the season. The guy’s really really hard to hit and he’s really really hard to hit when you’re behind in counts so not letting those guys get in advantage counts where they can maybe sit on a fastball or sit on a changeup or something they think they’re going to get, they’re kind of on their heels the whole day. He has the ability and talent to do that to anybody. Just put them on their heels when he gets ahead and I thought he got ahead of everybody. I’ve hit off of him on days like that and it’s not fun.”
On if its weird seeing Blake Burke leadoff
“Yeah, I did like a double-take. I was in the outfield and I heard them announce Blake Burke leading off and I was like, ‘what?!’ But it works out great. Gets on base in his first at-bat as a leadoff. Comes up later in the game with two guys on. V (Vitello) is kind of a mastermind when it comes to lineup creation. He does some things I’ve never seen, but he knows what he’s doing, so that was pretty cool. Not something I would have put my money on if I was expecting that to happen or not.”
On how excited he is to play in the SEC Tournament as a graduate transfer
“I’m pumped, man. I’m pumped to play in a bunch of fans. Baseball fans from different schools. I’ve heard from so many people how special that tournament is and I’m super excited. For me, this whole year has been nothing but trying to take it in and be thankful. I’m excited to have that opportunity and to go down there. As a team we’re excited for Tuesday.”
