Tennessee kept waiting for a hero to show up and bail it out.
The search took much more time than anticipated, and it required auditioning just about everybody on the bench.
Ultimately the Vols weren't able to single out just one star on Tuesday during the longest baseball game in school history. But that left a little bit of credit for all of them in a gritty, 8-7 victory that required three late rallies to pull off in 13 innings against Western Kentucky at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
"That is a great win," senior Davis Morgan said. "I think we used everybody on the team pretty much, so it's good early in the year to do stuff like that for later in the year.
"When stuff like that comes up, we know that we can do it."
The Vols (4-0) largely threw the adversity they faced at themselves with some sloppy defense and a couple offensive mistakes, both of which the Hilltoppers (1-3) were able to capitalize on as they gained an edge late in the game.
Neither an opportunistic Western Kentucky team nor UT's errors were able to keep them down for long, though, with Morgan eventually rescuing another win early in the season with a sacrifice fly in the 13th. But the Vols needed plenty of other guys to chip in before Morgan poked a ball deep enough to right field to drive in Zach Luther and finally get rid of the Hilltoppers after 4 hours, 48 minutes.
"That was one of those games that you could say we did everything possible not to win the game, they did everything possible to win the game — all we did was win the game," UT coach Dave Serrano said. "You know, I say this all the time, you can never figure out this game, why things happen the way they do.
"I want to continue to stress, like I said to the team, let's be excited about how we battled tonight, we came back and overcame ourselves. But, boy, we still have a lot of work to do to get to where I think we should be."
That was most evident in the field for the Vols as they racked up four errors, including three in the seventh that sparked a four-run inning that handed the Hilltoppers the lead and set the stage for late drama.
Once that was unavoidable for UT, it had to expand the cast to find a way to end it.
Nick Williams came in to deliver three scoreless innings of relief, notably holding the Hilltoppers down until Chris Pierce delivered a sacrifice in the bottom of the ninth that extended the game.
Dalton Saberhagen then had to wriggle out of a jam in the 12th after inheriting two runners, and while he walked in a run, he limited the damage and cruised through the 13th.
In both those frames he was aided by guys off the bench, first with pinch-hitter Wes Walker fighting through a lengthy at-bat to drive in Chris Fritts and tie the game. Then Morgan came through with the game-winner to keep UT's record clean at this early stage in the season.
"There's going to be times when we're playing better teams and we're going to have to get down to the nitty-gritty and play like that," Walker said. "There were some quiet times in (the dugout), but I think for the most part all of us guys were in it the whole time, even though we had some mistakes.
"This is a team win, and this is going to be big during the season if we can do this."
Tennessee's signing class for 2012
Softball: Tennessee 2, Georgia 1
Tennessee defeats Georgia 3-2 in…
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Comments » 35
OrangeForLife writes:
Take em anyway you can get em VOLS. Go Vols!!
huntined#565710 writes:
We get the win but boy our pitching looks WEAK!!!
same problem as last year got to get some fireball pitchers if we want to play with the big boys. I like the way they fought back when they were down and had to have a run. Don't think they had that fight in them last year.
LJS1984 writes:
The pitching staff is very young, not sure how weak they are yet? It's four games into the season and they are 4-0.
The Vols started a true freshman tonight and WKU scored four runs in the top of the 7th. A combined four Tennessee pitchers each gave up one earned run. That's pretty good if you ask anybody that follows baseball. I watched most of the game after work on UTsports.com, I'm not sure what you watched?
P.S. I'm not saying that this team is great by any stretch of the imagination, but the pitching was anything but WEAK.
wildmed writes:
This is the kind of win that can really define a team's character! Way to go, Vols! GBO!
huntined#565710 writes:
when you give up that many runs to a WKU that is weak pitching yes I know we had some errors and I watched the whole game if you remember we WALKED IN THEIR GO AHEAD RUN..strong pitching don't do that...
GiveHim6TDTennessee writes:
Starting pitching isn't 4-0, just fyi.
Southland writes:
wow 13 innings to beat a 1-3 Sunbelt team I am not feeling real excited about that
smyrnavol1 writes:
4 and 0, is 4 n 0! period. Don't see any of you girls(me included) out there showing them there Sunbelt younguns how to play ball! Get over yourselves, and cheer the VOLS on!!! GO VOLS!!!
FWBVol writes:
I didn't see the game, but just reading this story would lead me to indicate that UT pitchers only gave up three earned runs in 13 innings, which comes out to a 2.08 ERA. If our pitchers can do that in the course of the season our pitching staff will be just fine.
I'll take your word that we walked in the go ahead run, but I would need to know how that base runner reached base and advanced to third before blaming it on the pitchers.
And a point of fact, I don't think you will find one pitcher in the Baseball Hall of Fame that didn't walk in at least a dozen runs in their big league careers so I don't think that's too big of a worry at this point of the season.
This was just the fourth game of the year and the arms are still shaping into form. Give them time.
NashvillePreds writes:
4-0
CheeseDonkey writes:
This isn't football or basketball. This is baseball. Baseball is one of the most fickle games in the world. A bad team can show up and beat a great team and a great team can show up and look like the worst team in Division I, simply because of the way the ball bounces or someone is having an off day. "Because they gave up runs to WKU" isn't an indication that the pitching staff is weak. If they do it on a consistent basis, sure. But to base it off one game is ludicrous and shows your lack of baseball knowledge.
THEKIDWISCONSIN writes:
Wow, you'd think by the comments that this was still Raleigh's team and we were 0-4?
People, we're 4-0 and this was a mid-week game while our 1-2-3 starters get ready for this weekend...you know, coming off a sweep last weekend.
I don't care who we're playing at this point. A win is a win and see Coach Serrano get this team to play together, fight back and pull this one out was a joy.
Go BaseVOLS!
1bigvolman writes:
when you're in the first week of a new coaching era, it doesn't matter who you're beating, just be glad you're 4-0! GBO!!!
jumby92 writes:
Looks like a couple of the negative nellys from the football and basketball stories stumbled into the baseball area. Leave, we don't need your diarrhea of the brain over here, stick to slamming Dooley and Martin! The team is 4-0, period. This is a MAJOR rebuilding project for Serrano and victories, regardless of opponent, build confidence and buy-in. It takes patience and the ability to recognize incremental improvement and a lot of so-called fans are incapable of this. Baseball is not football or basketball and at this level, one error, or one lucky fly ball dropping in the zone can win or lose a game for any team regardless of the quality of the opponent. The competition will get tougher soon enough but we need to build on the good things we learned in these wins and also correct the bad things and it is a lot easier to do that against WKU and NIU than USC, UGA, and Vandy.
hcjournals#206623 writes:
4 and 0. Scoreboard.
Rich_Is_Re-born writes:
Dude it's baseball! I'll bet if you watch pro ball, you'll see the game's best pitchers get rocked by teams like the Pirates and Nationals at times. You'll see the Yankees lose games to the Royals. Better yet....I'll bet if you ask ANY coach of ANY baseball team at ANY level, they'll tell you that they are happy winning 2 out of every 3, no matter WHO they are playing. We are 4-0. And if you watched alll the games like you claim, you will see that Serrano is throwing his younger pitchers quite a bit trying to get them ready for big boy ball. The Saberhagen kid does walk a few, but he's young. He's gonna be one heck of a pitcher, you wait and see.
Rich_Is_Re-born writes:
BINGO. Good post.
Pompey writes:
....what was left behind in the wake of Mike Hamilton and Todd Raleigh the wonder is that we can field a team at all.....
vol4gzus writes:
Galloping goobers y'all of the negative persuasion.......FOUR games......giving everybody some work.....bet you're glad your boss doesn't act as flippant about production from you....Move on to Seton Hall Pirates this weekend for next....
Bubba_Knows writes:
Agree. Raleigh's Team would be 0-4 with the same team.
Rich_Is_Re-born writes:
Well put. I don't think people remember we got SPANKED by the likes of Manhattan last yr. I've watched college sports for some time as many on here have, I NEVER knew a University of Manhattan existed until they came to Knoxville and drug us. We were losing games like this last yr and are winning them this yr. And as you said, we are playing tons of guys while doing so. Anyone thinking we are running all of our best players out there for all 9 innings are wrong. We still have work to do, but the 4-0 record is a sign of improvement IMO. Actually, I've went and watched them play and saw the improvement first hand. Baseball is a cheap sport to go and watch on the hill. I wish more folks would go and support these guys and they might see first hand what GOOD Serrano is doing over there.
BigBadVol writes:
Pitching looks WEAK? Please don't post if you don't know what you are talking about. Pitching is one of the team's stronger areas.
givehim6 writes:
Vols my not be deep in very talented kids but kids that want to win and know how to play as a team. This is how championship team are made, UT has the right man with the HC hat on.
huntined#565710 writes:
If pitching is our strong point we are in TROUBLE
YOU GIVE UP THAT MANY RUNS TO A TEAM THAT IS WHAT 1-4 you will be in trouble when you play the S.C-FLA AND TEXAS. From what I saw yesterday it was clutch hitting that won the game not CLUTCH PITCHING!!
Volunteer_Pride1794 writes:
You really need to stop posting in this area of the site. You clearly know only the amount of baseball you see while getting hammered on two beers at a bar. Our pitching hasn't performed perfect, but for the young guys we have, they've been pretty great out of the gate. Western Kentucky is actually a pretty good team that is from an offense heavy conference. FIU, NT, FAU, and ULM can put up runs in a hurry. WKU is built to fit in that conference and they had a decent year, finishing 33-24 last season. They played their first three games against a veteran Toledo team, that once again, can come to play ball. Quit whining about the records because in baseball, they don't mean as much. Plus, in extra innings last night, Tennessee pitchers either put down the side (that's 1,2,3 to you), or got themselves out of the inning with minimal to no damage. Sure they walked in a run, that can happen with a young kid in a pressure situation. The kids are going to be alright if they keep working like they are. We play the 11th toughest schedule in the entire country, so we're going to have bumps in the road. But this team is going to surprise alot of people this season. You might even learn some baseball along the way.
Go VOLS!!
huntined#565710 writes:
Name the pitcher that really stood out and won the game.
By the way you don't have to be a baseball expert like you to see pitching did not win the game some of you guys act like we beat the YANKEES we beat two bad teams that have a record of 1-7..now they do look better then we did last year because they show some fight but they will need better pitching to win the bigger games all I am saying.
I_Bleed_Orng writes:
Wow! Thanks for the scouting report.
I don't know baseball like I know football. What I do know about is building teams. Looks like Serrano is off to a good start.
Also, those of us who can admit we don't know this game like we do others value posts with good info such as this. Keep up the good work. Hopefully those with big opinions and small brains (huntined#565710) will shut their pie holes long enough to listen and learn.
Don't be rat trappin'.
FanNotSheep writes:
I know it's only Western Kentucky but Serrano is so much better than Raleigh or Durham or whatever the idiot's name was. If he was still here they'd probably be 0-3. With him coaching they couldn't win an intra-squad game.
IC_Vol writes:
If we are 4-0 then of course the teams we played would have a losing record. Its to early to make any bold statements. This team is predicted to come in last so I am pretty happy that we are 4-0. When we get going against the stronger teams will no what we have. As for now its good to see that the team is winning against lesser competition. That is something they did not do last season.
Rich_Is_Re-born writes:
I somewhat see what you are saying. Perhaps the pitching didn't "win" the game. I think what got everyone riled up is that you kinda came across as if you were saying our pitching as a whole sucks. What I've seen against these week teams is Serrano switching pitchers left and right. Even when a guy was doing good, he would get yanked. He's doing so to get his young inexperienced arms ready. It might cost us a game or 2 early, but if they don't get them ready it will crush us down the road. Our starting pitching overall is pretty good. Drew Steckenrider was SEC player of the week and on his way to the pros. Dude throws 94mph.
huntined#565710 writes:
Rich you know I have posted here since June 7 2007 and you know I love my VOLS I just made a statement that in THAT GAME I felt our pitching was weak. Then all of a sudden I have guys that came on here in FEB 2012 telling me how stupid Iam BUT that was my VIEW of THAT GAME. If they saw it different then that is their VIEW. I HAVE NEVER BEEN A vol hater OR GO AGAINST My VOLS IN ANY SPORT and have had my days with the FLA guys that come on here as well. I did not post a post to tee anyone off I just gave my view OF THAT GAME . Now I know I am no expert in any sport but I do have MY VIEW and I will post it..as most everyone in here does. Heck man I have tough skin just being a VOL GIVES YOU THAT and I have always said YOU HAVE TO HAVE A STRONG HEART TO BE A VOL!!
Rich_Is_Re-born writes:
You cool man. Don't worry about it. This has become a "I'm a better Vol Fan than you" site. If you have a different opinion you are not a Vol. Or if you make an HONEST mistake and make a wrong statement, you are not a Vol. Don't feel bad man. I've been labled a troll because I see nothing in our football coach that leads me to think he's gonna get it done. It's not that I don't like him, I don't call him names, talk all this Dool-Aid stuff. I just simply think he's a halfazzed football coach. And people who have ZERO PROOF that the man is half of what they say he is will call me a fake fan/troll. It's funny though, they always respond with name calling. They can NEVER state what he's EVER done that leads them to think he can do it. Well I guess I need to take this to the football site, LOL. All I'm saying is don't sweat it man. Opinions vary. I'm just saying, if yours doesn't match up with everyone elses, that makes you not a Vol, LOL.
budd#207344 writes:
I was at the game for the whole game and we had one pitcher that did not perform decently. The rest did a good job. I especially feel sorry for the guy who was pitching during the 3 errors that were almost in a row. But he did not get rattled and Coach finally pulled him. The pitching was good with one exception that could not find the zone
WaltGoVols writes:
Dooley has made this into a team that doesn't even want to go to a bowl game, let alone win championships.
Walt
UT '81
WaltGoVols writes:
Wrong thread. Need more coffee.
Walt
UT '81
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