After nearly a calendar year away from the diamond, Tennessee’s baseball team made a triumphant return Friday night.
The Volunteers opened its 2021 season with a 5-3 victory at Georgia Southern. It was Tennessee’s first game in 346 days after the COVID-19 pandemic brought a premature end to the 2020 campaign last March.
The Vols (1-0) received a stellar pitching performance from starter Chad Dallas, who took a no-hitter into the bottom of the seventh inning.
Dallas went 6.1 innings, surrendering two hits and a pair of earned runs, while striking out six Eagles.
He gave way to Sean Hunley, who was on the mound for 1.2 innings. Hunley gave up one earned run, a hit and three strikeouts.
Closer Redmond Walsh nabbed the save by hurling a scoreless ninth and striking out two of the three Georgia Southern hitters he faced.
Offensively for the Vols, right fielder Jordan Beck went 2-for-4 with a home run, a double and a run. He drove in three for Tennessee, which jumped to a 5-0 lead before withstanding a seventh-inning rally by the Eagles (0-1).
Luc Lipcius had two hits, including an RBI double, while scoring a run.
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