FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - In fairness, Tennessee wouldn’t have been playing the 10th inning without shortstop Danny Lima’s solo home run in the ninth that tied Arkansas.

But the junior suffered through a brutal defensive stretch when he misplayed an inning-ending ground ball for an error, then lost a lazy popup behind second base in the 10th.

The ball dropped untouched by Lima. Ben Tschepikow hustled all the way around from first as Lima double-clutched briefly and scored to give the Razorbacks (22-16, 7-9 SEC) a 5-4 victory Saturday before 8,070 at Baum Stadium.

Tennessee (22-16, 9-8, which lost Friday’s opener 5-4, wasted another gem by a starting pitcher and was kicking itself over stranding too many baserunners and failing to retire usually light-hitting Arkansas catcher Ryan Cisterna.

Lima’s hero status — he crushed a 1-0 pitch from Justin Wells over the 375-foot mark in left-center to force extra innings — was short-lived. After Vols reliever Danny Wiltz (3-1) picked off Logan Forsythe from second for out No. 2, Tschepikow reached on Lima’s error. Then up went Brett Eibner’s popup that swirled around in the wind. Lima struggled to find it as he drifted back and it fell beside him. The play was scored a single, but such defensive mistakes have haunted the Vols all season.

“It’s a bad way to lose,” said Tennessee first-year coach Todd Raleigh, whose team was 11th in the SEC with 64 errors entering Saturday’s game and recently ranked 199th in Division I in fielding percentage. Through Friday, Tennessee was at .954, tied for last in the conference.

“It’s been a problem for us all year,” Raleigh said of the defensive miscues.

“In baseball you can’t hide the middle of the field. They’re going to find you eventually. Those plays are so routine. I can’t teach someone to catch a routine pop fly. I don’t have a drill for that.”

The defensive struggles canceled out pitcher Bryan Morgado’s brilliant performance. The redshirt freshman from Miami went the first nine innings, striking out 11 with 7 hits allowed over 127 pitches.

In two losses, Vols starting pitchers haven’t walked a batter in 17 innings before Wiltz walked two in his relief stint Saturday.

“I felt it was the best performance I’ve had all year. I had control and my arm felt great,” said Morgado, who had sympathy for Lima. “Mistakes happen.

Lima, I just hope he keeps his head up. He came up big with the home run.

But we have to come back tomorrow and pick up a win before we get out of here.”

Morgado regretted just two fastballs Cisterna hit over the left-field fence, a solo home run in the third and a two-run shot in the seventh. On Friday, Cisterna’s two-run homer off Nick Hernandez was the game-winner. Despite extending his hitting streak to seven games, Cisterna is batting just .224 overall.

“He’s been tough. I see his numbers aren’t very good on the year, but he’s looked like an All-American this weekend,” Raleigh said of Cisterna. “He’s been the difference.”

The Vols have outhit the Razorbacks 23-16 but left 17 runners the first two games. Arkansas goes for the series sweep at 2:05 today.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.