The results were nothing new for Liam Doyle in Tennessee baseball’s 3-2 series-opening win over Vanderbilt Friday night.
Twelve strikeouts in 12 shutout innings? An unhittable fastball and well located off-speed pitches to keep hitters off balance? It was nothing new from the SEC’s best pitcher and a projected top five selection in July’s MLB Draft.
But Doyle’s mentality and toughness won the day in a victory Tennessee desperately needed, adding more layered chapters to his dominant junior season in Knoxville.
The story of Doyle’s outing against Vanderbilt started a week prior against Auburn. He pitched one inning in a downpour Friday night before the game was called and postponed until the next day. That kept Doyle from pitching in his conventional role.
But the lefty came out of the bullpen on Sunday to throw two scoreless innings of relief in extras. That alone was somewhat surprising for a pitcher with the draft stock Doyle has.
“He don’t care. He wants to compete,” Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello said. “He does not care, and he’s a good teammate.”
Pitching on Sunday made it an unconventional week for Doyle. The Ole Miss transfer told the media that he effectively used the Sunday outing as his bullpen for the week before throwing on flat ground Wednesday.
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Baseball as a whole and starting pitching specifically is a game of routine. Doyle was unbothered out of his routine, showing mental toughness in the process.
“Tonight was an easy cop out to say I didn’t go through my routine. I didn’t go through my usual deal,” Vitello said. “So tonight, to me, is the big story of it’s not a guy that’s looking to make an excuse or look for a reason to not perform his best, which I’m not knocking it, because maybe I would have too. … Those routines help you. But at the end of the day, when the umpire or the play ball kid says, ‘play ball,’ you hook it up. I don’t know that we have a better example in our clubhouse that can hook it up than Liam.”
Doyle’s physical toughness was more noticeable. The Vols’ ace has dealt with a blister issue all season and it again reared its ugly head starting in the sixth inning against Vanderbilt. It wasn’t until the seventh inning when the issue was noticeable.
Trainer Jeff Wood came out to look at Doyle after he hit Drew Holcomb with one-out in the seventh. The hit batter was an indicator something was up on a night Doyle didn’t walk a batter and threw 71 strikes on 100 pitches.
“When we visited Liam (Doyle on the mound), there was a ball conversation with the umpire,” Vitello said. “I was showing them the ball. Liam had blood all over that thing from his blister. And it’s not like he had a big — (like) somebody shivved him and he had a knife wound or anything, but it’s just kind of representative of how the guy will compete.
“I think our team needs to take note of that. Blood, sweat, tears, whatever it is, go out there and do that, and let the scoreboard take care of itself.”
A bloody baseball was fitting for a New England native who is a diehard Boston Red Sox fan. Much like Curt Schilling, Doyle pushed through the physical adversity and gutted his way out of the seventh inning with some help from Hunter Ensley.
“Just happens,” Doyle said. “I feel like I rip down on the ball pretty hard compared to some other people so it just happens naturally after probably 70 or 80 pitches, around that time is when it starts to get weak or whatever. It is what it is, fight through it. Drew up the perfect routine fly ball to centerfield, double play at the end of the game (seventh inning) with the blister going. That’s how we did it today.”
