Tennessee's 49th game of the season was its first as the nation's No. 1 team.
After ascending to the top of the college baseball rankings Monday, the Volunteers hardly looked the part Tuesday night until Dylan Dreiling's three-run home run to right field in the seventh inning allowed them to break free for a 6-3 victory over Queens University of Charlotte. It was the 40th win for Tennessee against nine defeats.
"This time of year is survive and advance," Vols coach Tony Vitello said in a news conference afterward. "The more you can get in the heat of the fire and get repetitions at learning how to survive, the better you are as a team and as an individual as well."
Queens, which began in 1857 as the Charlotte Female Institute and was known as Queens College until 2002, fell to 12-37 in its second season as a Division I member. The Royals made it interesting by loading the bases in the ninth inning with no outs, but Tennessee relievers Kirby Connell and Aaron Combs combined to tally three straight strikeouts.
Pitching has been the strength of the Vols recently, as they have a 2.12 earned run average in their past two series against Missouri and Florida. Tennessee begins a three-game series at Vanderbilt on Friday.
"Seeing a different guy every inning was a little tough," Tennessee second baseman and leadoff hitter Christian Moore said. "We were coming off a weekend where the starter goes four, five or six innings, but we got it going when we needed to."
The Vols trailed 3-2 entering the seventh inning but opened with singles to center by Dalton Bargo and Moore. Bargo came home on a Billy Amick ground out to tie the game at 3-3 and set the stage for Dreiling's needed heroics.
Tennessee improved to 12-1 this season in midweek games, bouncing back from last Tuesday's 9-6 loss to visiting Lipscomb.
"My freshman year, I thought it was way more cool to be ranked No. 1 than now," Moore said. "I don't know why. We've got a target on our back, which we've had since I've been here."
Marcus Phillips started on the mound for Tennessee and was all over the place, hitting the opening batter and walking three of the next hitters he faced before being removed from the game. Dylan Loy entered with a 1-0 deficit and the bases loaded, and the Royals made it 2-0 with a one-out fielder's choice.
The Vols pulled into a 2-2 tie in the fourth inning, when Hunter Ensley scored on a wild pitch and Cannon Peebles came home on Moore's single to left field.
Queens went back up 3-2 in the sixth on Zach Weston's two-out single to right that scored Tyler Cotto, who had reached on a leadoff walk. Tennessee, meanwhile, was retired in order in the fifth and sixth innings.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.