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A crazy game morphed from simply strange to suddenly scary for the Tennessee baseball team Tuesday night.
The Vols survived a wild 16-13 slugfest against Austin Peay, but that wasn't the scary part.
What had UT coach Todd Raleigh initially sweating bullets were ninth-inning injuries to junior reliever Danny Wiltz and junior third baseman Cody Brown.
Wiltz, one of UT's most consistent pitchers out of the bullpen all season, had to leave the game after facing two batters in the ninth.
Brown, a captain and team leader, came up limping and left the game two batters later after leaping high for a grounder chopped over his head.
Those two injuries come on the heels of junior reliever Aaron Everett possibly being lost for the season with an elbow injury suffered Sunday against Florida. Everett had an MRI performed Tuesday and Raleigh admitted it didn't look good for the former Loudon High School standout.
"Losing Aaron Everett this weekend was devastating," Raleigh said. "We can't lose Wiltz because we thought we were as good as anybody in the SEC with those two guys."
The good news for UT (20-11, 7-5 SEC) is the injuries to Wiltz and Brown don't appear to be as serious as the Everett injury.
For Wiltz, it appears to be located in the triceps muscle of his right throwing arm.
"For a pitcher that's a good thing since it's not an elbow or shoulder," Raleigh said.
Brown's injury appeared to be to his left calf.
"I'm not a doctor, but we don't think it's anything too crazy," Raleigh said.
It was the game that was way too crazy.
The Vols and Governors (15-14) traded leads seven times in a game that featured 33 hits and lasted more than four hours. It turned into UT's 11th comeback victory of the season, thanks to a nine-run outburst in the eighth.
Kentrail Davis and Shawn Griffin continued their torrid hitting. Davis went 4-for-5 with two solo home runs, five RBIs and four runs scored.
"That was probably the strangest game I've every played in - by far," Davis said. "We were just really comfortable tonight at the plate. It was just bam, bam, bam."
Griffin had the biggest bam with his towering three-run homer in the eighth to give UT a 12-11 lead. The reigning SEC player of the week went 2-for-5 including another solo homer in the third.
Tennessee is back in action at 7 tonight at East Tennessee State University (7-24).
Notes: Halls native Trey Lucas was 3-for-4 with a home run for Austin Peay ... UT's Jeff Lockwood allowed five runs on five hits and three walks in 12<0x2044>3 innings. ... The Govs had the bases loaded with one out in the ninth and Ty'Relle Harris, the seventh UT pitcher, struck out two batters for the save.
© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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Posted by 02champs on April 9, 2008 at 10:49 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Wow. Griffin is locked in right now. Go Vols..!!
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