KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – No. 8/15 Tennessee dropped game two of its weekend series against No. 10/11 Vanderbilt, 10-6, on Saturday night in front of a sold-out crowd of 6,329 at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
The Big Orange hit three home runs and finished with 10 hits, but dug themselves a hole they couldn’t climb out of in the middle innings.
The Commodores struck for eight of their 10 runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to break open a 2-2 game. UT starter Marcus Phillips got the loss after allowing five runs on five hits in 3.2 innings.
Hunter Ensley once again led the Vols offensively with two runs and a pair of hits, including a two-run homer to put Tennessee ahead 2-1 in the bottom of the first inning.
Gavin Kilen and Andrew Fischer also went deep, hitting back-to-back long balls in the seventh inning to cut the deficit to four, but that was as close as the Vols would get.
Reliever Luke Guth earned his first win of the year for Vandy after tossing a scoreless inning of relief while Ethan McElvain pitched a shutout ninth inning to quell any chance of a late Tennessee rally.
Russell Strong in Relief
One bright spot for UT’s pitching staff was the performance of AJ Russell, who was able to settle things down after Vanderbilt’s offensive outburst in the middle innings.
The junior righthander posted his longest outing of the season, allowing just one unearned run off two hits with a season-best five strikeouts over 3.2 innings.
Up Next
The Vols will play their sixth consecutive rubber game when they take on the Commodores Sunday at 3 p.m. on ESPN2.
