Liam Doyle has had a career season with the Tennessee Vols, cementing himself early on as the team’s Friday starter, along with posting career-high numbers across the board.
His 13th official start of the season came at Lindsey Nelson Stadium against the No. 11 Vanderbilt Commodores. After an anything but usual weekend against Auburn, in which Doyle appeared in three innings across two games due to a rain delay, he returned as if he didn’t miss a single beat.
“I felt fresh,” Doyle said. “Obviously, it was a weird weekend last weekend, with two outings, I haven’t done that in a while. Pretty much just stayed on the routine, kind of just treated Sunday almost like my bullpen.”
Despite the odd blocking in starts, Doyle stressed that he felt good going into his day against the Commodores.
Doyle started the night with two big strikeouts, the first looking, while the second went down swinging.
Inning one ended with three-up, three-down from Doyle, who looked like he hadn’t missed a single beat after an irregular preparation week compared to the rest of his season.
His second inning of work was more dominant than his first, posting two more strikeouts before forcing Colin Barczi to ground out to short, ending the inning.
The third frame brought Doyle’s first base runner of the day, in the form of a Jayden Davis single up the middle of the infield that rolled into center.
Despite the runner on first, Doyle delivered his fifth, sixth and seventh strikeouts of the game to close out the inning and strand the lone baserunner.
Debatably, the most impressive part of the start through the first 10 batters was the lefty’s command, delivering no walks in the outing.
Doyle’s gas tank wasn’t empty yet. By the end of the fourth inning, Doyle had added three more strikeouts. All three of the fourth inning punchouts went down swinging.
The dominant fourth frame upgraded Doyle’s official line to four innings with 10 strikeouts, no walks, no runs and one hit allowed.
Before Doyle arrived in Knoxville, he had spent time at both Coastal Carolina and Ole Miss. While at Ole Miss, he led his pitching staff in strikeouts with 84 in 2024. He also became the first Rebel pitcher in three years to post back-to-back double-digit strikeout performances.
Despite some previous success, it seemed like Doyle had finally put together the pieces to become a more complete starter. Granted, it is no mystery now, but the turnaround has still been impressive.
“It’s fun,” Hunter Ensley said. “I don’t know how many guys he punched out, I kind of get bored out there sometimes.”
The strikeout numbers deflated into the fifth inning, despite this, Doyle still posted a quick three outs after allowing a single to Barczi to lead off the fifth inning.
In the sixth inning, a blister began to develop on Doyle’s left middle finger, which would explain the drop-off in strikeout numbers.
Despite the flaring in the blister, Doyle bunkered down for two more innings of shutout baseball. Doyle posted his 11th strikeout of the night to lead off the sixth frame, before the next two batters grounded out to second and third base, respectively.
Doyle led his seventh and final inning off with what was his 12th and final strikeout of the day. Braden Holcomb was struck by a pitch the next at-bat, but Ensley saved the game with a robbery at the center-field wall.
Holcomb was tagged out as he attempted to tag up for second base. Originally called safe, until the Vols won the manager’s challenge, thus ending Doyle’s day on what was a highlight play from the outfielder Ensley.
“The coolest part is just how much the fans respect him and love him around here,” Doyle said. “You can walk up to the plate after not necessarily having the greatest day at the plate. He did have a good day at the plate today, but the fans still love him.”