Wake Forest threw some thinly veiled jabs at Tennessee after Chase Burns' dynamic debut for Demon Deacons
Former Tennessee Vols RHP Chase Burns made his debut for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons on Saturday against Illinois and he was dazzling. Burns, who left Knoxville for Winston-Salem after the 2023 season, struck out 10 batters while allowing just three hits and walking one across six shutout innings in his first start for Wake […]
Former Tennessee Vols RHP Chase Burns made his debut for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons on Saturday against Illinois and he was dazzling.
Burns, who left Knoxville for Winston-Salem after the 2023 season, struck out 10 batters while allowing just three hits and walking one across six shutout innings in his first start for Wake Forest.
The former Vol became a national sensation last summer thanks to his work out of the bullpen in post-season play.
Burns was moved to the bullpen last season after struggling early in the season as a starter for the Vols (6.10 ERA as a starter before the move to the bullpen).
There was some hope in Knoxville that Burns would stick around for another season, but he chose to hit the transfer portal and landed with Wake Forest, the preseason No. 1 team in the nation entering the 2024 season.
Burns is already viewed as a potential top 10 selection in this summer's MLB draft, despite his struggles as a starter last season.
Speaking of those struggles, Wake Forest's social media team had a little fun during/after Burns' first start, seemingly throwing a couple of jabs at Tennessee.
"Starter Chase Burns," read one tweet, which led a fan to tweet in response "just @ Vol Baseball".
A follow up tweet from Wake Forest read "Kill the narrative".
The narrative they're referring to, presumably, is that Burns is a reliever and not a starter.
Wake Forest and Tennessee are two of the top teams in the nation. There's a decent chance they could meet in Omaha later this summer. And if they do, I'd expect there to be plenty of fireworks between these two teams.
We already know the Vols relish in their role as the "villains" of college baseball. A little bad blood could certainly spice up a potential matchup between these two powerhouse programs.
