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Todd Raleigh said he needed to see scrappy.

He got scrappy.

The Tennessee baseball team used a script it may rely on all season to open SEC play with a 6-5 victory Friday night against LSU at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

"That's exactly how we've got to be and I think our team realizes that," UT's first-year coach said. "I like how we're fighting."

He also liked how the Vols (10-4, 1-0 SEC) got out to a torrid start against the Tigers (11-4, 0-1).

Tennessee relied on a strong effort from starting pitcher Steve Crnkovich (4-0) and some clutch hitting to stake a 6-1 lead after six innings.

Crnkovich, a sophomore transfer from Illinois-Chicago, was perfect through four innings, retiring 12 LSU batters in a row. He left the game after 71<0x2044>3 after giving up six hits and four runs.

"Steve was unbelievable on the mound," Raleigh said. "They've got a good club. They're real physical and they're not easy to pitch to, but he did a great job."

He got his fair share of support from his offense.

The Vols managed a modest seven hits, but made the most of their opportunities.

UT opened scoring in the second when newly bald headed catcher Yan Gomes laced a double to right-center and came home on a line drive single by Jeff Lockwood, also sporting a shaved head.

The two sophomores entered the game each batting under .200 and were looking for a change of luck.

"I didn't have a clue about it until I saw Jeff before the game, but it worked," Raleigh said. "They both played well."

Junior second baseman Andy Simunic (2-for-3) - his hair in tact - flexed his 170 pounds of muscle and gave UT an unexpected lift in the third with a solo home run to left, the second home run of his career at UT.

"They threw me a two-seam fastball and I got a hold of that one," he said. "We feel like we've still got something to prove and there was a lot of intensity in the dugout tonight."

Freshman Kentrail Davis helped the Vols make it 5-1 in the fifth when he crushed a two-run triple to the deepest part of center field. Cody Grisham had been hit by a pitch, stole second and stole third as Simunic earned a walk.

Cody Brown (2-for-3) then drove in Davis on an infield hit off the third baseman's glove.

"We've got two outs and Cody Grisham had an unbelievable at bat, fouled about four balls off and then got hit by the pitch, stole second, stole third," Raleigh said. "We get three runs with two outs. That's what we need to do and the kind of team we need to be,"

The Vols held on for dear life after Gomes scored what proved to be the winning run in the sixth.

LSU scored one in the seventh, two in the eighth and one in the ninth before junior reliever Aaron Everett eventually got LSU's Michael Hollander to ground into a game-ending force.

Game two of the three-game series is scheduled for 1 p.m. today (TV: SportSouth).

Notebook: The "Oops, my bad" play of the game goes to LSU's Blake Dean and Derek Helenihi. With the Tigers rallying in the seventh, two runs already across and Helini at first, Dean thought he had ball four and started for first base. It was actually ball three and Helenihi started jogging to second. Gomes fired the ball to Grisham who gunned it back to Tanner Moore for the 2-6-3 caught napping.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.