Tennessee baseball finally delivered a handful of clutch late inning hits and Cam Appenzeller was again terrific in relief as the Vols knocked off Mississippi State 6-5 in Friday night’s series opener in Starkville.
Here’s how the Vols earned the crucial win to open the weekend.
Tennessee Takes The Lead With Big Swings
Tennessee has an offense built to be power heavy but has not had enough power to this point in the season. But the Vols took and built the lead early against Mississippi State with a few big swings of the bat.
After stranding a pair of baserunners in the first inning, Garrett Wright sparked Tennessee’s offense with a one-out triple off the top of the wall in centerfield in the third inning. Reese Chapman did his job, driving Wright home with a groundout to shortstop.
Then Henry Ford made it a 2-0 lead one at-bat later, lacing a 386 foot solo homer to left field off Mississippi State ace Tomas Valincius. In the fifth inning after the Bulldogs cut Tennessee’s lead to one run, Levi Clark pushed the lead back to two runs with a 409 foot moonshot homer to left field.
Landon Mack Was Good Until He Wasn’t
Tennessee started Landon Mack came out sharp, working around a pair of first inning singles before retiring in order in both the second and third innings.
But Mack faced some trouble in the fourth inning when a double and single to lead off the inning gave the Bulldogs runners on the corners with no-one out. The Rutgers transfer did a good job of limiting the damage though, allowing the run on third to score with a sac fly but nothing else.
Things went sideways for Mack to lead off the fifth inning. Eight-hole hitter Reed Stallman led off the inning by hitting a 328 foot home run that just cleared the short right field wall. There was nothing cheap about nine-hole hitter Kevin Mileski’s solo homer to centerfield that tied the game at 3-3 and ended Mack’s day with nobody out in the fifth inning.
Tennessee Misses Scoring Opportunities In The Sixth And Seventh
Tennessee looked poised to retake the lead in the top of the sixth inning when Blake Grimmer walked and Trent Grindlinger doubled to put runners on second and third with one out.
Blaine Brown did his job, hitting a fly ball deep enough to left field to score Grimmer. But Grindlinger got caught too far off second base and the Bulldogs cut him down for the third out of the inning before Grimmer scored. In a spot that seemed to be a certain run, Tennessee could not score the go-ahead run.
Tennessee again threatened in the seventh inning when Manny Marin doubled to right field to lead off the inning. Two-out walks from Garrett Wright and Reese Chapman loaded the bases with two outs but Henry Ford flew out to left field to strand them.
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The Vols Break Through In The Eighth Inning
Tennessee again gave themselves a chance in the eighth inning, loading the bases with no-one out thanks to a Grimmer single, Grindlinger walk and Brown hit-by pitch. Again, Tennessee flirted with getting nothing.
Marin struck out swinging and Clark grounded into what looked like it would be an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play. But neither the throw from shortstop to second base or second base to first base were good allowing Clark to barely beat it out and give Tennessee the lead.
Freshman Nate Eisfelder legged out an infield single to add another run in his first career SEC at-bat. Then Wright recorded his third hit of the game, an infield, single to give Tennessee a three-run eighth inning to take the lead.
Cam Appenzeller Was Terrific Again
Mack handed the ball to Appenzeller and the freshman was again terrific, retiring the first nine batters he faced before running into trouble in the eighth inning after Tennessee took the lead.
Appenzeller’s stretch of 21.2 innings pitched in SEC play without allowing a run ended when Noah Sullivan drove home a run with a one-out bloop single to left field. A wild pitch put runners on second and third but Appenzeller got out of it with a strikeout and a fly out to the warning track.
The freshman went back out to the mound for the ninth inning and allowed a solo homer with one out but pushed through and got Tennessee to the finish line.
Box Score
Up Next
Tennessee resumes its three-game series at Mississippi State on Saturday night. First pitch from Dudy Noble Field is at 7 p.m. ET. The SEC Network+ is streaming the game.
