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Ugly start. Better finish. Same disappointing result for the Tennessee baseball team.

The Vols (24-17) continued their mid-week struggles against in-state opponents, this time dropping an 11-9 decision to East Tennessee State University on Wednesday at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

ETSU swept its home-and-home season series against UT after beating the Vols 10-9 in Johnson City on April 9.

"It's a big win for our program," ETSU coach Tony Skole said. "Obviously, we've been struggling this year with a lot of peaks and valleys."

Consider this a valley for a Vols team that continues to play well on weekends in SEC competition and continues to look for answers to midweek pitching woes.

The Bucs (12-29) took three innings worth of batting practice on Steve Crnkovich and Joey Rosas, pounding four home runs on their way to a 10-0 lead.

Crnkovich, after starting the season 4-0, dropped his record to 5-5 with the loss. He gave up six runs on six hits in two innings.

"Our pitching in the middle of the week is just not there," UT coach Todd Raleigh said. "When you look and see (ETSU's) velocity is all better than ours, ETSU vs. the University of Tennessee, that's something to look at."

Raleigh made his disappointment clear with a 30-minute post-game lecture to Crnkovich, Rosas and Jeff Lockwood.

"You just can't spot anybody 10 runs." Raleigh said.

ETSU's runs came fast and furious in the first three innings. Paul Hoilman hit a two-run shot in the first to make it 3-0. The Bucs sent 12 batters to the plate in the third.

Troy Mendez led off with a solo homer and Derek Trent greeted Rosas with a three-run shot. After a walk - one of nine issued by the Vols - Bart Roark jacked a Rosas pitch out to right field and it was 9-0. Mendez then came up for the second time in the inning and added insult to injury with an RBI double.

UT senior Shawn Griffin (4-for-4, three RBIs) gave a crowd of 1,561 its first chance to cheer with a solo homer in the third.

Freshman P.J. Polk added a two-run home run in the fourth and Griffin hit his second long ball in two innings, a two-run shot to center to make it 10-5.

It was 11-5 when UT's Ty'Relle Harris entered the game and shut down the Bucs' momentum. Harris struck out four of the first five batters he faced in going 21<0x2044>3 innings without allowing a hit.

UT scratched a run across in the sixth and kept chipping away with a two-run homer by Cody Brown off ETSU reliever Drew Story in the seventh. Griffin scored his fourth run of the game in the eighth on a Lockwood double-play ball to short, but that ended the scoring.

The Vols have lost in-state games to ETSU (twice), Lipscomb, MTSU and Tennessee Tech.

Tennessee out-hit the Bucs 12-11 in a game that lasted three hours, 27 minutes and included 347 pitches.

"We just need to get refocused," Raleigh said. "This is going to sound crazy, but I thought we were ready to play. I still thought we were going to come back and win that game, but double plays (three) killed us."

Kilgore a Vol: Brantley Kilgore got the call he had been waiting for.

Kilgore is wearing No. 31 for the Vols after earning a spot on the roster as in invited walk-on. The former Kingsport Dobyns-Bennett right handed pitcher (6-foot-3, 210) tried out for the Vols in the fall and was asked back for a workout with pitching coach Fred Corral last week after recent injuries put a dent in UT's bullpen.

Kilgore transferred from Tennessee Tech and pitched against the Vols at Lindsey Nelson Stadium last May - giving up two runs on three hits in two innings.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.