Tony Vitello praises Chase Burns after extended relief appearance: 'Lighting the world on fire'

Chase Burns earned the win after an extended relief performance against Stanford and head coach Tony Vitello did not hold back his praise.

Tennessee took down Stanford 6-4 as Burns pitched six innings of relief, gave up just two hits, zero runs and struck out nine batters. Vitello was complimentary of Stanford’s lineup, but Burns shut them down.

Tennessee kept its season alive and advanced to take on LSU in the next round.

“Outstanding game,” Vitello said postgame. “Their lineup was as advertised. ‘Very difficult to navigate’ was the word out on the street for good reason. They have a lot of fight to them, too.

“I know they’ve got a lot of elimination wins and comeback wins. It was going to take an extra special effort out of our whole team, to be honest with you. This is the second week in a row we got to a guy that many people don’t get to. And there’s guys that can frustrate you.”

Everything and everyone was on edge since it was an elimination game. Tennessee fell to LSU 6-3 in the opening game. But Burns’ effort was key.

But with an effort like that from Burns? The Volunteers were in good shape.

“Makes it more difficult when you’re feeling that playoff vibe or elimination deal,” Vitello said. “We got the special effort by those guys, a guy who refuses to come out of a game came out of the game. We brought our guy that doesn’t like to come out of a game. And a few guys asked me on the field, a lot of people asked me on the field, what did you mean you made a mistake or you should have put your team in a better position game one.”

Burns and the rest of the team seemed to get the message.

“That was me speaking out loud to you guys, being honest,” Vitello said. “I don’t feel good about the guy left of me not being in a game we had a chance to win. Maybe we can go to him in the ninth inning when we cut it to five to three. But then he can’t go for as long as he did, or doesn’t even have an opportunity to come in that early in the game.”

Burns was a starter out of the gate, but reshaped his game throughout the year out of the bullpen and came up big in the most pressure packed moment of the season.

“So that’s kind of what I was referring to,” Vitello said. “It’s an interesting deal how the season has worked out having a starter go to the bullpen for a reset and then (Burns) lighting the world on fire out of the bullpen.

“That’s the way we rolled with it. But it’s the second time he’s gone up towards a hundred pitches in the playoffs. And Dole will bounce back, be one of the best pitchers to come out of this thing. And there’s a lot of best pitchers, but I’m prejudice might be the best guy in the whole thing. And trust me I know the guy the other night we faced, how good he is, and that’s why it was nice to be in our dugout today, in conclusion.”

Burns and Tennessee take on LSU next with the winner advancing to the semifinals against Wake Forest in the bottom half of the College World Series bracket.