BATON ROUGE, La. — Tennessee baseball recorded hits on four of the game’s first six at-bats in its Sunday series finale at LSU. Little else went well for Tennessee over the next eight innings as the Tigers bashed past the Vols 12-2 in an eight inning run-rule the series finale.
It marked Tennessee’s first road series loss of the season, its second straight series loss and its third series loss in its last four series. Here’s how it went down.
AJ Russell Struggles In First SEC Start Of Season
AJ Russell made his 2025 SEC debut a week ago, coming in out of relief against Kentucky. made his first SEC regular-season start of his career against LSU on Sunday and he struggled from the jump.
LSU leadoff man Derek Curiel opened the bottom of the second inning by lining a solo homer into the right field bleachers and Russell had to work out of more trouble when the Tigers put two-on with one-out.
Tennessee brought Russell back out for the second inning asking him to face the bottom three batters in LSU’s order before it cycled back to Curiel at the top. Russell retired the first batter before Dalton Bargo was unable to make a running catch in the left-center gap leading to an error. The tall right hander struck out Chris Stanfield for out number two but then exited with the runner on third.
At the time Russell exited, the Vols were by no means in an awful spot. But Russell’s fastball velo was down, sitting 92-93 mph, and he struggled a bit with his command.
Second Inning Spirals After Russell Exits
Russell exited with Tennessee leading 2-1 as the tying run was on third base with two outs. Things quickly spiraled for the Vols.
Lefty Michael Sharman entered to face the left-handed Curiel, and the Tigers’ leadoff man promptly laced the second pitch he saw into left field for a game tying double. Tennessee intentionally walked the right-handed Jared Jones and brought in Kuhns to face Jake Brown.
Brown promptly pulled a 2-2 fastball into the right field bleachers for a three-run homer to give LSU a 5-2 lead. Tennessee needed just one out to get out of the second inning. Instead things unraveled on the Vols and they never truly recovered.
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LSU’s Casan Evans Gets In A Groove After Early Issues
Casan Evans was making his first start of the season for the Tigers but had been a shutdown reliever entering the series finale having allowed just two earned runs in 27 innings pitched this season.
But Tennessee jumped on Evans early. The Vols had a clear plan to be aggressive against Evans early in counts and it worked well early as Tennessee totaled four first inning hits and jumped out to a 2-0 lead. However, Evans avoided a truly big first inning by striking out Cannon Peebles to end the inning and strand two in-scoring position.
The Vols had few other opportunities the rest of the way. Evans got into a groove, retiring 15 of the final 17 batters he faced after the first inning. A Hunter Ensley double and Dean Curley single were the only baserunners the Vols would muster until Evans exited following the sixth inning.
Little Good From Tennessee’s Bullpen
Seven Tennessee pitchers threw in relief of Russell and all but two gave up an earned run. Andrew Behnke recorded just two outs. Thomas Crabtree recorded one out and allowed three inherited runs to score.
Tanner Franklin had the best outing of the bunch, allowing just one run in 2.2 innings pitched. That was solid work from Franklin but those types of outings were far and few between.
Brandon Arvidson had a nice moment, entering with no one out and immediately getting out of a second and third jam. But things went poorly for him in his next inning as he walked back-to-back batters and both runners scored. Tegan Kuhns allowed two runs on four hits in just 1.1 innings pitched.
Tennessee’s pitching depth remains a major problem and that proved true again in game three of the weekend series.
Box Score
Up Next
Tennessee baseball is back at Lindsey Nelson Stadium on Tuesday night when they’ll face Northern Kentucky. First pitch is a 6 p.m. ET and the SEC Network+ is streaming the game. The Vols take on Auburn in a three-game series next weekend in Knoxville.
