Tennessee baseball was represented on the popular SportsCenter top 10 plays on Saturday morning. Reese Chapman’s impressive home run robbery in right field to preserve the Vols’ lead at the time took the No. 2 spot on the rankings.
This catch was just part of a terrific day for Chapman at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. He finished 3-for-5 at the plate with two RBI and a run. This included an at-the-time crucial home run in the bottom of the fourth that put the Vols up 3-1.
However, Tennessee couldn’t hold on to its late lead. Despite being up 4-1 entering the eighth inning, the Vols allowed five to cross in the eighth and an additional run to score in the ninth. A solo shot in the bottom of the ninth was far from enough to survive, resulting in a 7-5 loss.
Reese Chapman’s HR robbery lands as the No. 2 play in ESPN’s SportsCenter Top 10 segment on Saturday morning ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/zFDmQ0LLc8
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More From RTI: Josh Elander Explains Eighth Inning Pitching Decisions In Series Opening Loss Against LSU
The rough eighth inning was the result of a lack of control on the mound from the typically consistent Brandon Arvidson. He walked the bases loaded before recording one out. Then, Bo Rhudy allowed a grand slam to give up the lead.
“Just spraying the ball a little bit,” Tennessee head coach Josh Elander said about Arvidson’s outing. “I mean, credit to LSU. They did a good job of kind of squeezing him there, but at that point you got to come in and attack the strike zone. We have 100% confidence in Arv to be able to do that, and for whatever reason he wasn’t able to get it over the plate.
“Idea was to be able to get him through Jake Brown. That’s a guy that can change the game in one swing, and he gets us out of there, and then we were going to go to Rhudy and let it roll from there. Clearly, the wrong decision, looking back now, but the theme of the deal needs to be, you got a lead late in the game, you got to attack the strike zone, dominate the average play. Same things we’ve been talking about for weeks around here, and starts with me. I got to put them in a better position to get that thing done right there.”
Tennessee and LSU will meet for game two on Saturday at 6 p.m. ET on ESPN2. The decisive game three is set for 1 p.m. ET and will air on SECN+.
