Well, that’s how you get things started for a title defense.
The Tennessee Volunteers began their pursuit of becoming the first team in 14 years to repeat as national champion with a 9-2 win over Miami (OH) on Friday night at Lindsey Nelson Stadium in a game that was delayed around an hour by rain.
Liam Doyle secured the win, allowing 1 earned run over 6.2 innings on 4 hits with 11 strikeouts. There were plenty of heroes at the plate for Tennessee, with 6 players driving in runs. Reese Chapman led the way with 4 RBIs, including a solo home run to open the scoring for the Vols in the bottom of the first.
After the Redhawks evened the game in the second inning, the Vols got to work and re-took and widened the lead over the next three innings. Tennessee put the game away for all intents and purposes in the fourth. RBI singles by Andrew Fischer, Hunter Ensley, and Dalton Bargo all tacked on a run each, and two more scored when Miami (OH) committed an error trying to turn a double play on a ball off Chapman’s bat. At that point, it was 8-1 and all over but the shouting with the way Doyle was dealing on the mound.
Next up for the Vols is a date with 3 seed Cincinnati on Sunday evening. The Bearcats topped Wake Forest in the opener. The teams square off at 6:00 pm ET. Wake and Miami (OH) face off in an elimination game at noon.