Vols/ Sooners spend most of game in pitcher’s duel, OU’s offense comes alive in 10th to beat Tennessee 5-1

With Drew Beam on the mound for the Vols, it wasn’t overly surprising this game turned into a contest where runs were at a premium — at least in the beginning.

Beam lasted 5.2 IP and gave up 7 H, 2 Ks, 1 ER and got six Sooners out via ground ball.

But as he often does, he worked through traffic in the second, third and gave up his lone run in the fourth. Before he gave up the run-scoring single, the Sooners’ Michael Snyder laced a ball to leftfield, where Dylan Dreiling made a full-extension, diving catch that saved a run from scoring from second base.

Beam ended his night by giving up a lead-off single in the sixth followed by a stolen base, a single to center and then an error on Hunter Ensley. Reliever Marcus Phillips entered the game, immediately hit a batter but then struck out the next hitter to end the frame.

Tennessee’s offense answered in the bottom of the fourth, when Dylan Dreiling absolutely crushed a ball 430 feet that left his bat at 112 MPH and landed somewhere in the seats in right field.

If you’re a fan of offense, it was time to turn the game off and wait things out. Beam worked through the fifth with no trouble, sitting the Sooners down as quick as their name would indicate. The UT offense got a two-out double from Christian Moore, who advanced to third on a throwing error. But Cannon Peebles grounded out to first on an 0-1 pitch to get OU out of the frame without any damage done.

The next inning is where Beam started to run into the trouble I mentioned during the lede, but despite two hits, an error and a HBP, Marcus Phillips came in to relieve Beam and got Tennessee out of the jam. With Peebles at DH, Cal Stark got the start behind the plate and threw out two batters through six frames — one in the fourth and another in the sixth.

Phillips came out for the seventh but walked two-straight batters on full counts, and lefty, California transfer Chris Stamos made his Vols’ debut by throwing one pitch and getting three outs — with the triple play effectively getting UT out of a two-on, no out jam.

In the bottom of the seventh, Blake Burke got a two-out single, making up in part for his p0-3 day with two strikeouts and two runners LOB prior to the two-out base knock. Christian Moore ended any threat of a run with a 2-2 swinging strikeout.

The eighth inning went quietly for both teams as Aaron Combs needed just seven pitches to get three outs. He had some help from Ensley in center, who ran the extent of a lengthy centerfield to get the final out of the frame.

OU’s Kyson Witherspoon finished his outing in the eighth and went 4.1 IP, struck out three batters, didn’t give up a run and walked three. He followed starter Brendan Girton, who pitched four innings, struck out nine batters, gave up three hits, three walks and just the one run.

Combs stayed out for the ninth, struck out two, walked one and ended the inning with a groundout to short.

Tennessee had the chance to pull out the win in the B9 with two-straight walks on seven pitches after a lead-off flyout, but Ensley struck out on three pitches and Burke popped up, also on three offerings.

The tie broke in the top of the 10th when Combs struck out the first batter he faced but then walked two batters in a row. He gave up a run-scoring double on pitch later. Combs threw 48 pitches in 2.1 IP after not throwing more than 1.2 IP since his JUCO season in 2022. This all can’t help but make one wonder if Vitello should have pulled Combs a batter or two sooner, especially since the bullpen used just one arm yesterday.

Overall, Combs’ day ended by allowing the 1 H, 1 R, 3 BB and 4 Ks.

Tony V ended up using two more arms — the second of which, Derek Schaefer, gave up another run-scoring single to give OU a 3-1 lead with two outs. Schaefer ended up allowing two more runs on singles, which put the Sooners up 5-1 with just three outs left.

UT faces Baylor Sunday night at 7:30 PM EST. Earlier in the week, Vitello named a group of guys who could possibly start Sunday: senior Zander Sechrist, junior A.J. Causey, sophomore Nate Snead and freshmen Matthew Dallas and Derek Schaefer. I could be mistaken, but Snead and Sechrist are the only guys who haven’t already pitched this week, so my money’s on Zander, that is, of course, if I was a betting man.