Knoxville Super Regional: Tony Vitello recaps Vols’ Game 1 win against LSU

Dan Harralson
·2 min read
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No. 3 national seed Tennessee (49-16) opened play in the Knoxville Super Regional series against LSU (38-24) on Saturday at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

The Vols defeated LSU, 4-2.

Game 1 experienced a 50-minute lightning delay between the second and third innings.

Following the contest, fourth-year Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello discussed the Vols’ Game 1 victory.

“Kudos to the people running the deal and then also our people that decided to throw that block party — their fans, our fans,” Vitello said. “I don’t know how you beat that environment other than keep the rain away, although the rain seemed to stoke the fire a little bit with the people.”

Photo by Dan Harralson, Vols Wire

Pitcher Chad Dallas earned his 11th win of the season, striking out 12 LSU batters, a career-high.

Vitello said he was impressed with Dallas’ outing against the Tigers.

“He was out there and got an out in a torrential downpour and then looked like he was on his way to get another one,” Vitello said of Dallas. “He then waits out the rain delay, so that’s the thing that that most sticks in my mind is how great the environment was and how gritty and gutty the guy to my left is kind of like Scotty Skiles used to say.

“I’ve always said, he’s a good guy to lead us into a weekend because that’s the way he is and our guys seem to kind of follow his lead. They do it in the dugout, too, when he’s horsing around, which can be aggravating sometimes. When it’s on the field, there’s a lot of passion. There’s a lot of grit, and if you’re going to summarize our win, it’s not like LSU didn’t have the same thing, but it was kind of our brand of baseball and we were able to overcome a little bit of adversity and fortunately win the game tonight.”

Game 2 is slated to start at 3 p.m. EDT on Sunday at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. ESPN2 will televise the contest.

WATCH: Paul Mainieri introduced to Lindsey Nelson Stadium crowd

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Knoxville Super Regional photos: Tennessee-LSU Game 1