BaseVols Bowled over BGSU as the offense continued to mash with four HRs, while Causey, Loy combined for a 1H, 1R effort in 11-1 win

Amick (twice), Burke, and Curly all hit dingers and combined for eight of Vols’ 11 RBIs

Tennessee’s offense made it 10-straight games with a home run — it hit four in the game (two from Billy Amick) and the pitching staff used just two pitchers to hold Bowling Green to one hit and one run in the eight-inning, 11-1 run-rule win.

The offense scored runs in five of the game’s eight innings, including three in the 4th inning and four in the 5th inning. Amick’s first blast came in the B1 when he took a 3-1 pitch that was high and inside and belted it into the party deck in left field. Official metrics on the HR — 419 feet, 25 degree launch angle and 109 MPH off the bat.

Shortstop Dean Curly made his return in sparkling fashion as he added the Vols’ next run in the B2 with a solo shot to left. The freshman from California now has three home runs in just five starts.

Curly went 1-2 for the game with the HR, two RBIs and a walk. He’s hitting north of .375 and making a strong case to remain as the starting SS even once the group all gets healthy again,

The runs in the B3 started with a Blake Burke single to first that he advanced to second on a throwing error. He plated Hunter Ensley and advanced Christian Moore to third, who had singled following Ensley’s lead-off walk.

Amick scored Moore on a foul-ball sac fly, and then Kavares Tears followed suit with his own sac fly that scored Burke, Two hits and three runs for the inning, thanks in part to BGSU’s only error of the game.

The fifth kicked off with a Moore walk and a passed ball that put him in scoring position. Moore at second instead of first didn’t much matter, as Burke’s two-run shot went opposite field for his second home run of the year.

This one traveled 345 feet, well into the party deck and left the bat at 101 MPH — a bit low for a Burke smash, but it counted all the same.

Amick literally struck again as the next batter when he hit his second HR of the game and stretched his team-lead in home runs to 6-4 (with Tears in second at 4) after regaining the lead with his earlier shot. This time, he went opposite field to left-center for an official 365-foot solo dinger.

Curly finished the scoring off with a sac fly that scored Tears, who’d singled earlier, advanced to second on a Robin Villeneuve HBP and then got to third on a Dylan Dreiling fly-ball out.

The offense didn’t score again until it finished off the game in the B8 with two runs: Ethan Payne scored Charlie Taylor on a first-pitch single to right, and Colby Backus ended things with another single that scored Reese Chapman. It’s worth noting that Taylor and Chapman both got on base via HBP, and freshman, Lipscomb HS graduate Hunter High put both RISP.

While the offense was obviously on its game again, AJ Causey and Dylan Loy were spectacular. Causey went 7IP, gave up 1H, 1R, 1BB and struck out nine of the 22 batters he faced on just 78 pitches — 50 that went for strikes.

This was Causey’s first start, and with his performances out of the bullpen (1.17 ERA in 7.2 IP, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 Ks in two appearances) he’d made a good case for a start somewhere, though I’d assumed it would be a mid-week game. But kinda like AJ Russell, Tony Vitello threw Causey in on a Friday and was rewarded as the junior, Jacksonville State transfer absolutely cooked. Causey was the Friday night guy as JSU, so that likely played a factor, too.

The junior righty got some help from the defense — a recurring theme so far this season — as Cal Stark got a runner who thought he was heading to second on a sac bunt, but the bunt didn’t go down, only the runner at first did:

In the T7, Tears made a diving catch in right that saved a woulda-been single from dropping in. It seems like somebody in the outfield is making a play like that every game, and overall the defense has been much-improved from last season. Let’s hope that trend continues.

The first three of AJ’s nine Ks came in the first, as he got two batters out swinging the the final hitter out with the bat that, some say, is still sitting on his shoulder:

Causey painted the corners like he was cutting in the trim on his living room walls (I’m not a painter so don’t kill me if that is an inaccurate simile), and the near-side-arm slot from which he throws makes it even tougher for batters to get a read on his pitches.

Vitello went with freshman, Pigeon Forge native Dylan Loy once he took Causey out in the eighth, and Loy sat down BGSU batters down 1-2-3, with strikeout sandwiched between two ground-ball outs. Loy’s numbers for the season have been fabulous: 4 IP, 0.0 ERA, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 Ks and 1 W in four appearances.

The Vols look to take game No. 2 tomorrow, with the start time scheduled for 5 PM EST.