Tennessee baseball opened up its three-game series against Texas A&M with a 10-0 run-rule victory on Friday night at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
Left-handed pitchers Liam Doyle and Dylan Loy combined to throw the 10th no-hitter in program history and the second this season. Doyle threw six scoreless innings, striking out eight batters while walking two batters and hitting two more. Loy came in and retired the side in seventh inning with two ground outs and a fly out.
Following the game, Doyle talked what he had working for him, whether he knew the no-hitter was In play and much more. Here’s everything Doyle said.
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On if he’s okay after the trainer checking on him
“It’s fine. Just like a little nagging injury. Nothing to worry about. Be ready for next week.”
On if it was his or Tony Vitello’s decision to pull him after the sixth inning
“Coaching decision, yeah. I’d be extremely injured out there and I wouldn’t want to come out of the game. But coaching decision, I respect the coaching decision. It’s the right move there. Let other guys throw anyway and go win a ball game. Whatever it takes.”
On if he protested the decision
“I tried. It’s tough to win with him. It’s hard to argue against Coach V. He’s pretty damn good at what he does, so I’m not going to argue too much.”
On what he had working for him
“Just getting ahead of good hitters. Obviously a good lineup with some good power bats in there. Just getting ahead and trusting my defense and my defense made some great plays behind me. Lucky to get out with a win tonight.”
On if he was aware the no-hitter was going on
“Unfortunately, yeah. It is what it is. Being apart of two no-hitters in the same year is pretty incredible blessed to be apart of it.”
On if it was the first time he’s been apart of two no-hitters in the same season
“Two no-hitters? Probably. I threw two my senior year of high school but college wise, I don’t think I’ve even come close.”
On practicing against Tennessee’s lineup preparing him for games
“Practicing against the best lineup in the country, it makes these weekends feel much easier. Getting to go against great hitters all fall was really fun and being here and working with the guys every day, just so lucky to have that.”
On working around baserunners, if that made it easier to not focus on no-hitter
“Yeah, still wasn’t necessarily perfect tonight but pretty good blocking it out and just going inning by inning and locking in and getting the next guy out. Throwing the next pitch, trying to wipe everything that just happened away and throw the next pitch.”
On the development of his splitter
“Yeah, well we wanted some more vertical, last year my splitter was a little bit more horizontal. Off my fastball it plays really well. Changed up the grip a little bit year-to-year but I’ve been throwing it harder. Throwing it just like my fastball. It’s been a good get out pitch for me. I’ve gotten a lot of weak grounders, a lot of swing-and-miss 0-2 because hitters are usually sitting fastball against me. Plays well, down in the zone especially, and hitter usually aren’t ready for it. It’s been a lot better this year and it’s a good pitch to have. Not a lot of people see left-handed splitters. It’s pretty rare.”
On when he first developed that pitch
“I’ve thrown it probably since like my junior year of high school. I’ve never thrown a circle change so I just started throwing that and obviously there’s been some changes throughout my college career. Got a little bit better my freshman year, a little bit better my sophomore year and definitely a lot, lot better this year. It’s probably my second favorite pitch to throw. It’s really good and really effective. Feel like I can throw in the zone a lot so it’s a fun pitch to throw.”
On watching Tennessee’s lineup
“It’s pretty fun, man. I mean you got a lot of confidence in your guys, it gives you a lot of relief out there as a pitcher. You don’t have to be perfect every time you go out. You just have to give your team a good chance to win. And with this offense we have this year, we’re going to score plenty of runs against pretty much everyone. I’m pretty confident in that.”
On his roommate Andrew Fischer’s two home run performance
“It was alright. He can be better. I told him he wouldn’t hit three and he didn’t. Twos pretty good though. I’ll congratulate him later.”
On if he ever had a multi-week tear last season at Ole Miss like he has this season
“Yeah, me and my mom were talking, I think he likes to hit home runs when I’m pitching. So that’s always a good thing. He did that a lot last year. Just bringing a different energy to the team when we’re up early and hitting home runs and I’m in a groove on the mound so it’s fun when he hits and there’s a million guys in this offense that coils be on a tear. And it’s fun pitching for this team, man.”
On Tennessee having offensive success with Gavin Kilen out of the lineup
“It’s crazy that I feel like this team’s so complete and so good and we’re so deep. Like we were able to miss arguably the best hitter in the country and still get wins on Friday and all through the weekend in the SEC which is tough for most teams to do, if any team and then we’re also missing a guy like AJ Russell. A guy with his caliber too when he comes back, man, I mean team already has enough confidence that that’s gonna push it over the edge for us and we’re going to have a pretty successful season.”
