Vols stay hot behind Causey’s career-high 12 Ks and offense’s three HRs, beat Illinois in game one of weekend series 6-1

Billy Amick is now tied for first nationally in home runs

Transfer AJ Causey set a new career-high with 12 strikeouts in 6 IP (two Ks in each of six innings), while Billy Amick hit his ninth home run, Dylan Dreiling hit his fourth home run and Cal Stark hit his first dinger of the year in the 6-1 win.

Causley allowed his one and only run in the T1 when he gave up two-straight doubles, but started the inning with a three-pitch strikeout and finished things off in the same fashion.

The Illini lead didn’t last long, as Christian Moore hit his sixth double of the year — good for second on the team — and Blake Burke followed with his team-leading ninth double that scored Cmo. Burke sits tied for second nationally in doubles, pending other players’ performances this evening.

Billy Amick took a 2-2 pitch out of the park to score Burke. Amick’s home run went 360 feet and left the bat at 103 MPH:

Amick is now tied for first in the NCAA with his nine home runs, pending any deep shots from Georgia Tech’s Drew Burress and UGA’s Charlie Condon tonight.

The pitching staff didn’t allow another run until the ninth inning, with Causey dominating the Illinois batting order.

The junior transfer got an inning-ending strikeout in the second —- I missed the second strike , my bad — but Causey worked his way out of two-on, two-out jam with a swinging strikeout on that nasty off-speed pitch:

Cal Stark hit his first home run of the season in the bottom-half of the second to stretch UT’s lead out to four runs, and Moore singled an out later, but the Vols ended up stranding him in scoring position after a Burke sac fly.

The T3 and more of the same from Causey — he struck out the first batter on a full count, allowed a double and got a ground-ball out before he sat down the final hitter of the inning on another swinging strikeout. His sixth of the game.

The broadcast put together a compilation of Causey’s K pitches, which I think was through 3 IP, since the count on the strikeouts was six. You see a variety of pitches, but the Illinois order just couldn’t quite figure out the breaking ball coming from Causey’s arm slot.

The offense went down without a peep in the B3, but Causey continued to cruise in the top of the fourth. Two more swinging strikeouts to start the half inning, and then a nice play from second baseman/ shortstop Christian Moore on an infield hit where he made the throw going with momentum making the throw across his body necessary. Blake Burke also gets credit here for the stretch and scoop to get a close play at first.

The offense didn’t get another run until the sixth, but with a 4-1 lead, Causey had some space to work with.

Here’s Causey’s second strikeout in the T4 — another swinging strikeout and this one on just three pitches. Again, he sits down the batter on the bender:

He struck out the first two batters in the fifth — his ninth and 10th of the game — but then allowed a full-count walk with two outs. On the first pitch to the next batter, he threw a swinging strike, but a few pitches later, he tried to get the man on first stealing second and tossed the ball into CF. I can’t quit tell if the ball slipped, given the consistent rain, or if it was just a bad throw.

The top of the sixth looked to be Causey’s final stanza of the game, considering his pitch count was near/ above 100. But still, He got a grounder to third, a full-count, bat-on-the-shoulder strikeout, gave up a single but ended the half inning on another strikeout with the batter just watching. UTSports twitter page put out a video that I like because it really gives you a view of the arm slot from which Causey delivers.

The Vols added their first insurance run in the B6 when Dreiling doubled an 2-0 pitch into center, and Dean Curley got his first hit of the game on his own double, though this one came on the first pitch he saw:

Dreiling added another just-in-case run with a home run that cleared the short porch in right by just enough to get out of the park.

The bullpen did its job in innings seven and eight, though the recently-reliable Kirby Connell, with a 0.95 opponents’ BA gave up a single and a run-scoring double before Vitello pulled him for Marcus Phillips.

Phillips gave up a grounder to the first batter he saw, but the run was charged to Connell. The sophomore right-hander tossed a wild pitch but got a ground-out for the game’s final out. Phillips now has a 0.00 ERA in 3.1 IP (three appearances), allowing 2 BB (both in one game, against Oklahoma, 1 H while striking out five in 11 at bats.

The Vols go for a game-two victory tomorrow at 1 PM EST.