With Tennessee’s Saturday night loss to LSU, the Vols’ season is on the line Monday night against Stanford in Omaha.
Tennessee is no stranger to elimination games, having played in two last weekend in the Hattiesburg Super Regional.
And just like in Hattiesburg, Chase Dollander will get the ball in an elimination game.
Last time out, Dollander struggled early before settling in to mow through the Southern Miss lineup in his final five innings. The junior retired 18 of his final 20 batters and went on to throw 111 pitches, 75 of which were strikes.
Dollander had help from his offense against Southern Miss, but there’s no denying he rose to the occasion. Now, he must do it again.
Following Saturday’s loss, Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello expressed his confidence in having Dollander start in an elimination game.
“I want to see Drew Beam pitch again and so does Chase Dollander,” Vitello said. “And I think Beamer and I probably have as much confidence in that guy as anybody else on the staff.”
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In addition to Dollander, reliever Chase Burns is fresh for Monday’s game. The Dollander-Burns combination has worked wonders in the postseason, as both pitched in Tennessee’s 14-inning win over Clemson in the NCAA Regional, and Burns relieved Dollander against Southern Miss on Sunday.
“One of the guys mentioned too we’ve got a bullpen that basically has gotten us here,” Vitello said. “So in combination with that and our position players getting after it, got plenty of faith in this group. If we were to lost faith about halfway through the year, we’d be recruiting for about two or three weeks by now.”
More than Dollander starting and Burns likely to come out of the bullpen, Tennessee’s elimination game against Southern Miss and upcoming game against Stanford share a strikingly similar scenario with the opposing pitcher.
Stanford didn’t throw ace Quinn Matthews on Saturday afternoon, meaning the second-best strikeout pitcher in the NCAA–behind only LSU’s Paul Skenes who just carved up Tennessee–will take the mound for the Cardinal Monday against Tennessee.
This will be the second week in a row Dollander will go toe-to-toe with the opposing team’s ace in an elimination game.
Last week against Southern Miss, ace Tanner Hall, who was a top-10 pitcher in college baseball this season, pitched for the Golden Eagles.
But Hall was not as advertised, giving up six runs to the Vols in one inning.
The six runs Tennessee has scored this inning on Tanner Hall are the most any team has scored in a game against Hall in his college career.
— Teddy Cahill (@tedcahill) June 11, 2023
A possible reason for Hall’s struggles may have been the fact he threw approximately 150-160 pitches in the Auburn Regional. Just like Hall, Matthews threw 156 pitches against Texas on Sunday, which was likely the reason he didn’t pitch for the Cardinal in their CWS opener against Wake Forest.
Assuming he is able to start, we will see how effective Matthews is on Monday. Regardless, Tennessee once again has their work cut out for them at the plate.
But with Dollander and Burns ready to roll, Tennessee can never be counted out.
