FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Tennessee was running out of pitchers and running out of spots to store an abundance of stranded baserunners.

Another loss and Vols coach Todd Raleigh might have started running out of patience, even with an inexperienced club that’s exceeding expectations.

But Tennessee outlasted Arkansas 7-6 in 10 innings to salvage Sunday’s series finale at Baum Stadium.

The Vols, who let potential victories slip away in the first two games, blew a two-run lead in the ninth inning and stayed alive only after some sloppy Arkansas baserunning.

A Tennessee run scored in the top of the 10th and the last pitcher in the bullpen, Steve Crnkovich, pitched out of trouble in the bottom of the inning.

The Vols had 17 hits and held a 40-24 edge in that category for the series. But Tennessee also left a season-high 15 runners on base Sunday, 32 in the three games.

“This team really battles well. We’re young, we make mistakes and we’ve got a lot of loopholes. I can’t be more proud of them,” said Raleigh, whose Vols (23-16) improved to 10-8 in the SEC and are tied for fourth in the Eastern Division with Florida, a half-game behind Vanderbilt.

Junior Ty’Relle Harris started on the mound for UT and allowed four runs on six hits with three walks and four strikeouts through 6 1/3 innings.

The Vols led 6-4 in the ninth, but command issues dogged relievers Danny Wiltz and Jeff Lockwood, who between them walked two and hit two Razorbacks to tie the game.

Crnkovich (5-4) entered with no margin for error: the bases loaded and no outs.

“It didn’t look good for us,” Raleigh said.

But the Razorbacks (22-17, 7-10) helped out. Logan Forsythe hit a sharp grounder to shortstop Cody Grisham, who fired home to get a force play. Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said the runner at second, Chase Leavitt, thought the ball might get caught on the line by Crnkovich.

When it wasn’t, Leavitt had started back to second and then paused before going to third. But it was too late. Catcher Blake Forsythe threw back to third where Cody Brown tagged out Leavitt and the Vols got to the 10th when Aaron Murphree grounded out.

For the first time all weekend, something went right for the Vols, who were haunted through 5-4 defeats on Friday and Saturday with unlikely Arkansas hitting heroes and fluke defensive breakdowns.

“All three games were just battles and all of them were close and we just needed to win this one,” said Blake Forsythe, the younger brother of Arkansas’ Logan Forsythe.

Yan Gomes, who had four hits and three RBIs on Sunday, hit a one-out single in the 10th. After Josh Liles, who also had four hits, walked and Alan Wright ran for Gomes, Wright scored on a Brown double.

With the bullpen empty, Crknovich had to hit for himself and grounded out.

The Razorbacks put runners at first and third with two outs in the bottom of the 10th, but Crnkovich got Scott Lyons to hit into a game-ending force play.

“It was a long weekend, draining for everybody,” said Grisham, who hit his first home run of the season in the eighth and finished with two hits. “We know when we come on the road we have to get at least one. We go to Mississippi State next weekend and that’s another big series for us.”

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.