BaseVols even up series vs UK with 9-4 win

UT goes deep five times

Tennessee’s offense put up five runs in the top of the first, and Aaron Combs came in and threw 4.2 innings of no-run relief while Kentucky, which leads the SEC in fielding percentage, committed two errors in UT’s 9-4 win.

The Vols looked laser-focused from the onset, as Christian Moore and Blake Burke hit back-to-back home runs to start the game. Moore’s 16th homer went 375 feet and had a 105-MPH exit velocity.

Burke’s shot also went to right field, but his long ball cleared the 400-foot mark. It was the California native’s 14th of the season and extended his program-record hit streak to 29 games.

Billy Amick reached on an error as the next hitter, and Kavares Tears brought him home on a 2-1 count double for his 31st RBI of the season. The Vols hit three consecutive doubles, counting Tears’, with Dylan Dreiling bringing Tears in for a run and Dean Curley plating Dreiling. Tennessee ended up batting around in the half inning, but Moore reached on a fielder’s choice but UK got the lead runner, Reese Chapman, for the final out. UT scored five runs on five hits, with a Kentucky error, but left two men stranded.

Vols’ starter Drew Beam gave back two runs in the bottom of the first when he surrendered a lead-off, first-pitch home run. A walk and a passed ball later, a base hit scored another run for the Cats. Beam picked off the runner at first for the last out. The runner was initially ruled safe, but the call was overturned via replay.

Tennessee added another run to its lead with a two-out, solo home run from Tears that showed off the redshirt sophomore’s power as he took a pitch that was on the inner-half of the plate out of the park to the opposite field.

UT hit a single in T3 but stranded the lone runner, and Beam struck out two of the three hitters he faced as he sat the UK lineup down in order in the bottom of the third.

Both teams went scoreless in the third and repeated the sequence in the fourth, but then each team put two runs up in the fifth inning.

Dreiling led the inning off with a solo home run — his 14th of the season, which ranks him second on the team.

Curley reached via another Kentucky fielding error and stole second after Reese Chapman struck out. Cal Stark got hit by a pitch, and Moore singled Curley home for the Vols’ second and final run in the T5.

Beam got the first out of the bottom half of the fifth, but then gave up a single, a run-scoring double and another run-scoring base knock, all consecutively. Instead of letting things get out of hand, Tony Vitello brought in Aaron Combs, who needed just two pitches and induced an inning-ending double play.

The Vols had two hits in the top of the sixth but stranded both, and Combs struck out the side in the bottom part of the inning.

Neither team scored in the seventh, either, despite each team getting at least one man on and stranding him.

In the T8, after Tears struck out, Dreiling went deep for the second time in the game.

Beam’s final line: 4.1 innings, 7 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB and 4 Ks. Today was just the second time this season Beam didn’t last five innings in a start.

Combs was absolutely electric out of the pen. He finished out the game for UT and gave up just three hits and no walks. He struck out the side twice, including in the bottom of the ninth, and ended up with 7 Ks total.

The offense managed nine runs on 14 hits and still stranded 11 men on base. Billy Amick and Hunter Ensley were the only two Vols to finish the game without a hit.

The rubber match is set for tomorrow at 1 PM.