Tony Vitello has 'plenty of faith' in Tennessee pitchers

Tennessee not only fell to LSU 6-3 in their first game of the College World Series, but they also used a large bulk of their pitching staff in the process. The Volunteers used seven different pitchers on the mound Saturday in their loss and now have to face Stanford on Monday in a high-stakes elimination game.

Volunteers’ head coach Tony Vitello will likely turn to Chase Dollander to start on the mound Monday, and after the game was asked about his confidence in Dollander and the remainder of his pitching staff in their upcoming matchup.

“I don’t think we can do anything until, as Griff [Griffin Merritt] and [Hunter] Ensley pointed out, get out of bed tomorrow and prepare,” Vitello said. “Monday will come when comes it does.”

Dollander has a 7-6 record on the mound this season for the Vols and has come through big so far this postseason. He hasn’t played his best as of late, but in the regional and Super Regional rounds Dollander made two appearances that both resulted in wins for Tennessee. In his 12.1 innings pitched this postseason he’s struck out 12 batters but given up 14 hits and eight runs.

“I want to see Drew Beam pitch again and so does Chase Dollander, and I think Beamer and I probably have as much confidence in that guy as anybody else on the staff,” Vitello said. “And one of the guys mentioned too we’ve got a bullpen that’s basically has gotten us here.”

Beam has been stellar on the mound this postseason for Tennessee, fresh off of a shutout performance versus Southern Miss that won the Vols the Hattiesburg Super Regional and punched their ticket to the College World Series. In six innings he struck out seven batters, allowing seven hits and no runs to help lead the team to a 5-0 win in a must-win game, but could he do that again on Monday?

“So in combination with that and our position players getting after it, got plenty of faith in this group. If we were to lost faith about halfway through the year, we’d be recruiting for about two or three weeks by now,” Vitello said.

Dollander and Beam at their best have proven to be dangerous aces, and if both can be effective as a duo versus Stanford, the Volunteers will have a much better chance of keeping their World Series hopes alive.

Tennessee squares off with Stanford Monday at 2 p.m. ET in Omaha in a game airing on ESPN.