Tony Vitello explains his decision to go to Chase Burns to close out Super Regional vs. Southern Miss

Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello knew that at some point during Monday’s Hattiesburg Super Regional Game 3 versus Southern Miss, he was going to turn to Chase Burns. He figured that moment would likely come in the eighth or ninth inning.

“Chase came to the park saying he could get us three to six outs,” Vitello said after the game. “He threw for us last night so we wanted him to finish the game, basically come in in maybe the middle of the eighth and finish the thing.”

But that was not the case. Vitello saw the critical moment come one inning earlier in the seventh inning.

Starting pitcher Drew Beam had allowed two singles to start off the inning to the last two hitters in the order, turning the lineup around. Vitello then turned to Aaron Combs to get leadoff hitter Matthew Etzel.

But with Dustin Dickerson coming to the plate next, Vitello made the call to the bullpen.

“I saw Dickerson coming up in the lineup,” Vitello said. “I shook his hand out there. I love our players but that guy is a buttkicker to keep it PG-13. He’s a special guy. I hope they remember him forever ’round here and they might get the watch him on TV in the big leagues. With him coming up, I thought that was going to be a swing moment in the game so why not go to the big dog right there.”

Burns came out of the pen throwing gas, topping at 102 mph.

He struck out Dickerson and Slade Wilks to end the frame, showing some big-time emotion by spiking his glove and yelling.

“That emotion he shows is reminiscent of what took place earlier on an SEC weekend for us,” Vitello said. It helped swing this whole season. It gave the guys a rallying point. It gave other teams something to fear at the end of the game. He did it again and it was pretty special. It lifted our guys and gave our guys confidence that we had ownership of the game.”

Burns would close out the 5-0 win for the Volunteers as they advanced to the College World Series.

But in addition to Burns’ heroics, Vitello also made sure to shoutout Beam and Combs for their performances in the victory too.

“You got to have a lot of conversations in the dugout,” Vitello said of whether to let Beam start the seventh inning. “He’s at 100 pitches. I don’t want to speak for them. I’d like to think they don’t want us to take them out of the game. That’s one way to think of it. But he’s also earned the right to take ownership of the game. We sent him back out, two seeing-eye singles, and he gave me the stiff arm but he doesn’t throw 100 like Burnsy so we took him out.”