Tennessee baseball had hit one ball out of the infield before scoring seven runs in the fourth inning to take a lead it never relinquished in a 11-5 victory over Wake Forest to clinch the Knoxville Regional and punch its ticket to supers for the fifth straight season.
A pair of Vols had big time relief appearances while the offense provided late game insurance runs. Here’s how it went down.
Wake Forest Draws First Blood On AJ Russell
Tennessee baseball gave the ball to AJ Russell in the opener role after the junior threw 52 pitches out of the bullpen two days prior against Cincinnati.
And it was a mostly good outing from Russell. He worked around a two-out double in the first inning to keep Wake Forest off the board. The trouble, controversially, came in the second inning. Russell nearly struck out Luke Costello looking on an 0-2 pitch that TrackMan had as a strike, but it was ruled a ball and the six-hole hitter went on to single.
Two batters later, Matt Conte opened the scoring with a two-out, two-run homer to right field. It put Tennessee in an early hole and ended Russell’s day.
Tennessee Does It In Different Ways In Massive Fourth Inning
Tennessee cut the deficit to one-run in the third inning after failing to fully capitalizing when they loaded the bases with no-one out.
The Vols took the lead before they hit a ball out of the infield in the fourth inning thanks to Wake Forest inability to find the strike zone and some good base running.
Walks from Hunter Ensley and Dean Curley gave Tennessee runners on first and second with one-out. The two showed off the strong base running by advancing 90-feet on a ball in the dirt. That proved significant when Reese Chapman used a check swing chop infield single to tie the game. A wild pitch allowed Curley to score and Tennessee to take that lead.
At this point in the game, Tennessee had hit just one ball out of the infield. A leadoff fly out to centerfield in the first inning.
Nine-hole hitter Manny Marin broke the seal with a two-out, three-run homer to right field. It was an incredible baseball moment, marking Marin’s third homer of his career and his first since before SEC play.
Gavin Kilen followed it up with an infield single, another ball out of the infield, before Andrew Fischer’s 24th blast of the season made it a seven-run inning to give Tennessee an 8-2 lead.
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Give Brayden Krenzel Major Kudos
Brayden Krenzel had struggled for Tennessee since missing two weeks in SEC play with an illness. The freshman chose a great time to look like the guy that gave SEC hitters fits earlier in the season.
The right-handed pitcher retired eight of the first nine batters he faced before a one-out walk and Matt Scannell homer ended his day in the fifth inning. The final numbers don’t look amazing but it was a really significant and strong outing.
Most notably, Krenzel retired Wake Forest in order in the fourth inning after Tennessee’s squandered opportunity in the fourth inning took the life out of the crowd. That was a major inflection point in the game.
The Game Swung In The Seventh Inning
Wake Forest slowly chopped away at Tennessee’s lead, scoring two runs in the fifth inning and another in the sixth inning to cut the lead to 8-5.
When Tanner Franklin walked nine-hole hitter Javar Williams on four pitches to lead off the bottom half of the seventh inning, the game was at an inflection point. Franklin stepped up, getting Matt Scannell to pop out on a 3-1 pitch and then pumping a 100 mph fastball past Marek Houston.
Then “I’m Shipping Up To Boston” played at Lindsey Nelson Stadium and ace Liam Doyle trotted in from the bullpen. After falling behind 2-0 Doyle pumped three fastballs past Kade Lewis to exit the inning.
Tennessee finally got some insurance in the bottom half. Fischer walked and went first to third on a Hunter Ensley single. Ensley stole second and both scored when Dean Curley singled to centerfield off of a Wake Forest ace Blake Morningstar.
*Liam Doyle broke Tennessee’s single-season strikeout record in the eighth inning.
Box Score
Up Next
Tennessee baseball advances to the Fayetteville Super Regional where they’ll face Arkansas in a best of three series next weekend. The game date and times have not yet been announced.
