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STARKVILLE, Miss. - It would've been understandable for first-year Tennessee coach Todd Raleigh to leave here Friday night using the shoulder-shrug "that's baseball" explanation so often used by the opposing coach, Mississippi State's Ron Polk.

A a 4-3 loss in 12 innings to Mississippi State (17-25, 5-14 SEC) gave him every reason.

State's winning run was driven in by a true freshman pitcher in his second collegiate at-bat. The tying run in the ninth came on a slow, choppy ground-out to shortstop. And UT's starting pitcher went seven innings and gave up just two runs.

But for Raleigh, the blame was inward. He thought the Vols (24-18, 10-9) were as unready to play for this game as any SEC game all season, blame he accepted.

"I couldn't walk out of here and say we should've won this game," said Raleigh, whose Vols stranded 12 runners.

Today's second game of the three-game set is scheduled for 3 p.m. EDT. Tennessee's freshman left-hander Bryan Morgado (4-2, 3.22 ERA) will face sophomore right-hander Ricky Bowen (2-4, 7.02).

UT's Nick Hernandez appeared close to getting his first win since April 5 when he pitched an efficient seven innings, giving up five hits and two runs. Hernandez retired 13 in a row at one point, a streak broken by Ryan Duffy's home run that led off the sixth.

"He pitched well," Raleigh said. "He kept us in the game; that's what he had to do."

Reliever Danny Wiltz pitched out of a jam in the eighth, getting the inning-ending run on a controversial play at the plate. MSU's Jet Butler, who was tagging from third, was gunned down by Josh Liles.

Wiltz wasn't as lucky in the ninth. Ryan Collins scored when Cody Freeman chopped a slow grounder up the middle.

Joey Rosas (3-2) took the loss in the 12th after State loaded the bases. That's when Michael Busby, who got a meaningless hit in his first collegiate at-bat in the 10th, hit a single through the left side of a drawn-in infield.

UT didn't score after Shawn Griffin's fifth-inning home run, his 11th of the season. Mississippi State turned to flame-throwing reliever Aaron Weatherford in the 10th, and he allowed just one hit and struck out four of the eight he faced.

"Most fun I've had all year, I think," Weatherford said.

Tennessee third baseman Cody Brown was removed in the eighth after being struck in the right arm by a sharp grounder. Raleigh said that the injury didn't require an X-ray but that Brown was doubtful for today's game.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.