Ready for Round 2
HISTORIC BURNS SHOWING FOR VOLS RESULTS IN CWS REMATCH WITH LSU
If Tennessee was to win its first College World Series game in more than two decades, it would have to take something special. Chase Burns was willing to oblige.
A starter-turned-reliever earlier this season, Burns entered Monday afternoon’s elimination contest against Stanford with nobody out in the fourth inning and the Volunteers trailing 4-0. The 6-foot-4, 195-pound sophomore from Gallatin instantly flipped the script, plowing through the Cardinal lineup as Tennessee rallied for a 6-4 triumph at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska.
Burns defined brilliant, allowing just two hits over his six scoreless innings while striking out nine.
“Chase Burns just came in there and slammed the door on us and made it really difficult for us,” Stanford coach David Esquer said in a news conference afterward. “He didn’t give us any cracks. We were going to have to do something special against him.
“Hats off to him, because that was an all-time performance at the College World Series.”
Tennessee improved to 44-21 with its first CWS victory since 2001 — the Vols went two-and-out in 2005 and again two years ago — and will get a rematch Tuesday night (7 on ESPN) with LSU. The Tigers opened CWS play with a 6-3 win over Tennessee on Saturday night but lost to Wake Forest 3-2 Monday night.
Stanford fell to 44-20 and joined Virginia as the two teams eliminated from this year’s eight-member field without winning a game.
“A win is nice, but you need more than one win at this place to get too excited,” Vols coach Tony Vitello said. “This is more about this group getting to be together for another day or two and hopefully even more than that.”
“There is a lot that goes into it. I love the energy and coming into a game. I had a lot of energy today, and I knew I had to go a little bit longer. It’s a different role, but I’m happy to be in it. You’ve got one thing in mind, and that’s just doing your job. No fight is too big for us.”
– CHASE BURNS, RELIEF PITCHER
The NCAA posted late Monday afternoon on Twitter that Burns produced the best relief performance at the College World Series since 1969. In four postseason appearances, Burns has allowed one run in 16 innings while recording 22 strikeouts.
“There is a lot that goes into it,” Burns said of coming out of the bullpen. “I love the energy and coming into a game. I had a lot of energy today, and I knew I had to go a little bit longer. It’s a different role, but I’m happy to be in it.
“You’ve got one thing in mind, and that’s just doing your job. No fight is too big for us.”
Tennessee has repeatedly proven that this month, rallying from a 4-2 deficit against Clemson during the ninth inning of the NCAA regional round, a 4-0 deficit in an elimination game last week in the super regional at Southern Miss and another 4-0 deficit Monday.
“It’s super special, and we know we’re never out of the fight,” Vols left fielder Jared Dickey said. “We’ve got a really special group of guys who have been through a lot this year. We’re coming together at the right time.
“It’s just super special what we’ve done.”
Chase Dollander started for the Vols but struggled, allowing four runs on four hits and two walks. Stanford struck for two runs in the first inning and two in the third, when Braden Montgomery had an RBI single up the middle and Alberto Rios a sacrifice to center to make it a 4-0 game.
Cardinal starter Quinn Mathews entered Monday ranked second nationally to LSU’s Paul Skenes in strikeouts, but he was chased from the game in the fifth inning, when Tennessee batted around. The Vols collected 10 hits off Mathews and scored four in the fifth to deadlock the game, and they took their first lead in the seventh when Griffin Merritt walked, advanced to third on Blake Burke’s double to left field and scored on a Zane Denton ground out.
Burke then came home on a wild pitch to make it a 6-4 game.
“We just started putting together quality at-bats,” Dickey said. “We were trying to hit line drives, because we knew if we hit the ball in the air that it really wouldn’t do anything. Their guy is obviously a really good pitcher who has done some really good things this year, but we started to calm down a little bit.
“We started to come together as a team like we always do late in games.”