College Baseball: Recapping a big time series win against Kentucky
Going into this season, not many people thought that this series would feature the country's #3 and #4 teams, especially with Kentucky being the higher-ranked of the two. This was a must-win series for the Vols if they wanted a chance at winning the SEC East.
The Friday night game began with Chris Stamos on the mound for the Vols. He lasted less than an inning as he was pulled in the first. The Cats got some early hits and almost took an early lead, but AJ Causey came in and got the Vols out of the inning without blood drawn. The Vols struck first with a 2-run shot by Hunter Ensley. Kentucky then answered with a solo HR in the bottom of the 3rd cutting the lead down to 1. Unfortunately for the Vols scoring would be tough as they only recorded 1 more run while Kentucky produced 4 runs late in the game. The runs scored late in the game were mainly due to errors and it came back to bite Tennessee as they dropped game one 5-3.
The Saturday game set the attendance record for Kentucky Proud Park with over 7,000 fans. Vol Nation did travel well and certainly contributed to that number. Tennessee got off to a scorching start on Saturday and gave Big Orange country what they are used to seeing as they scored 5 runs in the first inning with back-to-back bombs by Christian Moore and Blake Burke. Those 5 runs would be key as the final score was 9-4. That first inning was all the difference and set up a huge rubber match for Sunday.
Since losing the first deciding game 3 against Alabama on the road the Vols have not lost a series. This may have been the game of the year for all of college baseball. Top 5 teams battling it out in a deciding game 3 in the SEC, it does not get much better. Especially when it was so back and forth like this one was. The Vols took an early lead with a 2-run HR by Christian Moore. Things would then take a turn for the worse. By the end of the 5th inning, UK was up 6-2 and it looked like all hope was lost for Tennessee. The 6th inning would change that. The Vols scored 5 runs to take a 7-6 lead and a ballgame was officially back on in Lexington. The Cats would take the lead right back with a 2-run homer in the bottom half of the inning. This was the part where CMO took over. He and Kavares Tears homered in the 7th giving the Vols a 10-8 lead. It still would not be enough as the Cats answered with another HR in the bottom of the 7th to make it 10-9 Vols. CMO then had the kill shot in the top of the 8th as he belted a 3-run HR. Even though the Cats would hit 2 more themselves in the 9th, Moore’s 3 HR day was enough to win a huge series in the SEC East title race.
