No. 3 Tennessee Holds Off Baseball’s Comeback Bid, 3-2

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – No. 3 Tennessee rode seven strong innings from Drew Beam and a shutdown performance from its bullpen to a 3-2 victory over University of Missouri baseball, clinching its fifth-consecutive Southeastern Conference series win Friday evening at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

Beam (6-1) blanked the Tigers through seven innings, allowing just four hits while striking out eight hitters before allowing a Trevor Austin two-run homer in the eighth. From there, Kirby Connell retired four Mizzou (19-25, 6-14 SEC) hitters on just eight pitches, before Aaron Combs locked down the win, getting the final out of the contest after a two-out defensive miscue put the potential tying run on base in the ninth.

Led by 5.0 strong innings from Logan Lunceford (1-4), the Tigers pitching staff nearly matched Tennessee’s mound effort, limiting the Vols (36-7, 14-6 SEC) to a pair of fourth-inning runs and a seventh-inning tally.

After the two starting pitchers combined to keep the game scoreless through three innings, the Vols employed a two-out rally to break the scoring seal in the fourth. Lunceford dispatched the first two hitters of the inning on a pair of fly balls, Dylan Dreiling beat out an infield chopper to the left side to ignite the rally. Dean Curley followed with a base hit to right, advancing Dreiling to third and moving into scoring position himself on the throw to third. Next, a wild pitch brought home Dreiling with the game’s first run, before Hunter Ensley doubled home a second UT run.

Lunceford worked around a pair of Tennessee hits in the fifth, escaping the inning unharmed by retiring Kavares Tears on a fly ball to strand two baserunners. Brock Lucas extinguished a sixth-inning scoring threat, taking over for Ian Lohse with a man on and one out after the Tigers left-hander was struck by a line drive off the bat of Curley.

The Vols came up with what would prove to be the deciding run in the seventh, however, taking advantage of Cal Stark’s leadoff double to extend their lead to 3-0 on Blake Burke’s bouncer to the left side of the infield.

UT would need the run to withstand the Tigers’ late charge, as Danny Corona greeted Beam with an infield single to start the eighth. Austin then lifted the first pitch he saw over the wall in left for his 10th home run of the season, slicing the lead to just one run.

But Connell made quick work of the Tigers next two hitters, getting Kaden Peer on a come-backer before striking out Jedier Hernandez to end the eighth. He needed just two pitches to retired the first two batters of the Missouri ninth before yielding to Combs. The Vols right-hander misplayed a soft roller off the bat of Jackson Lovich to give the Tigers life, but then coaxed a fly ball to right from Drew Culbertson to secure the victory and his second save of the season.

Beam worked out of a pair of early jams with some help from his defense, which came up with a rally-squashing double play in the second, as well as an inning-ending pickoff with the bases loaded in the fourth. From that point, Beam picked up steam in the middle innings, retiring nine of 10 Mizzou hitters to complete seven shutout frames. The junior right-hander permitted six hits on the night in winning his third straight decision.

Curley and Billy Amick logged two hits apiece to lead Tennessee’s eight-hit attack, while Austin homered for the 26th time in his Mizzou career and recorded his 10th multi-RBI effort of the season to pace the Tigers.

TIGER NOTEBOOK

• With the setback, the Tigers’ series lead over the Vols was trimmed to 17-15.
• Mateo Serna extended his career-best hit streak to five games with his 1-for-3 performance
• Corona logged a hit in his third-straight game, marking his longest hit streak since starting his Mizzou career with a four-game streak (Feb. 16-22).
• Austin was hit by a pitch for the 16th time this season and the 45th time in his Mizzou career, the latter of which ranks third in program history.
• Through two games, 13 of the two clubs’ 16 combined runs have come via home runs.
• Mizzou has scored all three of its runs in the series via home runs, while Tennessee tallied all 10 of its runs in last night’s series opener on six round-trippers.

UP NEXT
The Tigers and Vols will conclude their series with an 11 a.m. (CDT) Saturday contest that will be televised live on SEC Network.

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