BaseVols drop 24-1 win on Illinois’ head with 6 RBIs from Reese Chapman and a 1 H, 1 R performance from the pitching staff

The bats go nuts again

Starter Drew Beam tossed five innings of 4 H, 1 R ball, while the offense topped the 20-run mark for the second time this year, and Tennessee clinched another series with the 24-1 walloping.

The offense scored multiple runs in every inning except the second (0). UT dropped two runs in the first — one off a passed ball that Blake Burke scored on, after hitting his first double of the game.

A batter later, Kavares Tears brought home Billy Amick on a full-count double to the wall in left center. Tears is now working on a 14-game hit streak, for anyone who’s counting.

The bats really made some noise in the second, making it a 8-2 game with six-run bottom half. Burke hit another double that scored Dalton Bargo, who’d let things off with a walk.

A combination of two individual walks each followed by its own wild pitch scored Burke and Christian Moore, who reached base on a fielder’s choice after two Volunteer walks earlier.

Dylan Dreiling plated Tears and Billy Amick, who’d worked one of those aforementioned walks, with his 10th hit in seven games on a three-run home run to deep center. Officially — the ball traveled 420 feet with an exit velo of 104 MPH.

The sophomore outfielder is quietly having a fine season, with at least one hit in 15 of 16 games with five home runs and 16 RBIs, which is good for third on the team.

Dean Curley struck out to start the third, but Reese Chapman got his first hit of the day with a first-pitch, ground-rule double to RF. Chapman started and hit in the nine-hole today, so it was Christian Moore who brought him home with another UT home run — this one to right center. It was Moore’s fifth HR of the season.

The Illini outfielder nearly lost his head on that one.

The offense plated 12 runs in innings five, six and seven, with the highlight being:

Dalton Bargo’s leadoff home run in the fifth…

Burke’s fifth home run of the year in the same half inning, which was a three-run shot that left his bat at 107 MPH:

Chapman’s grand slam in the sixth, after two singles and a walk. Chapman joined the 400-foot club with this bomb that went 415 feet with an exit velocity of 104 MPH:

Ethan Payne, freshman Hunter High and Bradke Lohry accounted for the four runs in the seventh aided by three HBP, two BB and one wild pitch. High doubled to left to score Payne, who’d gotten into scoring position on the wild pitch that scored Colby Backus. And then Lohry capped off the runs with a two-run single to center that scored Bargo and High.

Chapman pushed across the final two runs for the Vols with a two-run double that gave him three hits, two doubles, the grand slam and six RBIs for the game.

The pitching consisted of Beam’s 5 innings, when he scattered five hits and struck out five. Dylan Loy, JJ Garcia, Brayden Sharp and Austin Hunley each pitched an inning of relief, giving up a combined 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB and K’ing eight of the 13 hitters they faced.

Tennessee looks for another sweep tomorrow — hopefully in better weather — with the first pitch scheduled to go out at 1 PM EST.