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Yan Gomes did a double-take when he looked up at the scoreboard.

The University of Tennessee's sophomore catcher was looking up at the speed reading of Bryan Morgado's second pitch of the day against Furman.

It read 99 - as in 99 miles per hour.

The consensus was there was a brief glitch with UT's speed gun, but there was nothing fluky about the UT debut of Morgado.

The redshirt freshman made his first appearance as a Vol and wowed the Monday afternoon crowd at Lindsey Nelson Stadium as he struck out 10 of the first 12 batters he faced en route to a 2-1 victory.

The 6-foot-2, 195-pound left-hander from Miami gave up just two hits and one unearned run on 12 strikeouts with one walk.

"For his first career start, it was unbelievable," first-year coach Todd Raleigh said after UT improved to 3-1. "That's the best start I've ever seen for somebody in their first appearance.

"I don't know if we can come up with the adjectives for that."

For a comparison, here are some strikeout numbers of a few other former UT pitching stars in their debuts: James Adkins (seven), Patrick Hicklen (seven), Luke Hochevar (six), Todd Helton (five), R.A. Dickey (two).

Morgado may not have thrown 99 mph, but he consistently hit 89-93 on the speed gun as he mowed the Paladins down in order through four innings. In UT's first three games, not other pitcher came close to those numbers.

"I'm actually surprised about the velocity today," Morgado said of his return from Tommy John surgery performed October 9, 2006. "I did not see that coming at all. I think I saw 94 (on his fourth pitch of the day), and I've never thrown that in my life.

"I'm just happy I had a good day. Velocity doesn't matter as long as I'm throwing strikes and getting guys out. The defense played great behind me."

Actually, for the first few innings, the defense was getting bored. There were 10 strikeouts and two easy fly balls for freshman center fielder Kentrail Davis.

"He had what you would call electric stuff," Furman coach Ron Smith said. "His fastball had life, he threw a couple of really good changeups and he had a really tight breaking ball with command of all three pitches. It was impressive."

The Tennessee offense wasn't quite as impressive.

Besides junior third baseman Cody Brown going 3-for-3, the Vols spent most of the day scrapping for nine hits and leaving eight runners stranded in scoring position.

"Cody's giving us a good at-bat every time up," Raleigh said. "But we're still just fighting the game a little."

Senior second baseman Andy Simunic gave UT a 1-0 lead when he legged out an infield single, stole second and third on back-to-back pitches and scored on a Davis groundout.

Furman (0-1) finally got its first hit when clean-up batter Ryan Lee looped a soft liner the opposite way to right field to lead off the fifth inning. After a wild pitch and a passed ball, Lee scored on a sacrifice fly to make it 1-1.

The Vols were having flashbacks to Saturday's 4-1 loss to Morehead State, but things were different this time.

Davis led off the bottom of the fifth with a single, went to second on a single by Brown and eventually scored on a Gomes sacrifice fly. Gomes also made a huge defensive play when he gunned out a Furman runner at third on a stolen-base attempt in the eighth.

That's all Morgado and UT closer Jeff Lockwood needed.

The only issue was Lockwood decided to make things interesting in the ninth inning, en route to earning his ninth career save. The sophomore from Halls struck out the first batter he faced, walked the next three to load the bases and then finished the Paladins off with two strikeouts.

"Oh my goodness," Raleigh said. "You want some adjectives on that? I'm not a big fan of walking the bases full in the ninth and then striking out the last two, but I've heard he has done that in the past.

"The positive about Jeff is he didn't lose his composure. A lot of people walk three in a row and they're done. He wasn't. He's our guy. He's our closer."

Even Lockwood admitted he flirted a little too much with danger.

"I took that one a little far," he said. "Walking three guys in the ninth inning, that's a little stressful, but it all worked out.

"I know (pitching) Coach (Fred) Corral has a lot of faith in me. He came out and told me that. I have faith in myself and hard work is paying off."

The Vols are back in action 3 p.m. Wednesday at home against Austin Peay.

They head to Houston for the Minute Maid Classic on Friday, Saturday and Sunday against Texas, Texas Tech and Oklahoma.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.