BATON ROUGE, La. - After losing by 15 runs in the series opener, Tennessee returned to the ballpark Saturday looking like a different team. The Vols said it was no accident.
"We struggled early, and I really feel like we've turned the corner the last couple of weeks," said UT first baseman Cody Hawn, who went 3-for-5 and drove in the tying and go-ahead runs in a 7-5 victory at No. 1-ranked LSU.
With the bases loaded and the Vols trailing 5-4 in the top of the eighth inning, Hawn's line drive handcuffed second baseman Ryan Schimpf for a tough-chance error, scoring Cody Grisham and Jarred Frazier.
Grisham's second home run of the season, with two outs in the ninth, topped off the rally.
"We brought a lot of energy to the field today,'' said Hawn, after the Vols lost 18-3 Friday night, "and we just kept fighting."
The final game of the series is scheduled for 2 EDT today.
UT (18-22, 4-13) is last in the SEC at 4-13 despite what school officials said was the Vols' first victory against a top-ranked team since a 1993 home win against LSU.
The Tigers (28-11, 11-6) are in jeopardy of losing their No. 1 ranking after a 3-1 loss Wednesday to Nicholls State and UT's victory.
LSU helped the Vols by committing a season-high five errors. Two came in the eighth, including Hawn's stinger that ate up Schimpf.
"Everything else was kind of ugly," Hawn said, laughing about two infield hits he sandwiched around a fifth-inning RBI single. "Hey, I'll take any kind of hit."
UT coach Todd Raleigh credited Hawn with making good contact.
"You've got to put it in play and put pressure on the defense," Raleigh said. "We did that."
LSU didn't do it often enough to compensate for its five errors. The Tigers struck out nine times, four times against Vols reliever Bryan Morgado, who earned his second save.
"He's been phenomenal since he moved into this role," Raleigh said.
Mergado induced All-SEC designated hitter Blake Dean, who is surging at the plate this month, to fly out to end the eighth with a runner on second base.
Raleigh called for a breaking ball on the last pitch, but Morgado shook it off, and Raleigh let him go with the fastball he wanted to throw, saying later he knows it is Morgado's best pitch.
"I'm mature enough to go with my own call there," Morgado said. "He let me have it. I'm glad he did. It worked out for us."
Danny Wiltz (1-1) pitched a scoreless seventh after starter Nick Hernandez allowed five runs on nine hits in six innings.
LSU senior starter Louis Coleman (8-2) struck out a career-high 11 batters. He gave up 10 hits, including a seemingly endless sprinkling of infield hits that befuddled the Tigers.
Their errors indicated it probably took a toll.
"You've got to put pressure on people," Raleigh said. "I've always said you get 27 outs, and if you punch out 10 times and pop up six times, that's 16 times when you're not putting a lot of pressure. You want to hit ground balls and increase the pressure because with ground balls it's tougher to make plays."
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Comments » 10
peerless writes:
Amazing how a meaningless scrimmage gets so much coverage while a win over the #1 team in the country is buried. WOW
Tenn_Dawg writes:
Nice win Vols!! LSU's loss coupled with the Dawgs taking the first two of three against #5 Arkansas this weekend has given them a nice two and half game lead for the SEC regular season championship. Now go out and take the series.
Peerless....college baseball is great but everybody knows football is king....even in the spring.
cajunvol writes:
Great atmosphere for baseball, but Mergado was lights out in the 8th and 9th inning. He blew away the heart of their line-up and struck out the side (all looking) to end the game.
olevole writes:
It is great to see our vols win. With the talent this team has they would have been able to win one and go after 2.
And should have won a lot more earlier this season.
Bryan Morgado is the real deal. He could carry a team to more wins if he were used as a starter. Treating him as an after thought will only make him want to leave early.
Hopefully someone can step up tomorrow and compete.
Futurecoach16 writes:
I just love some of the fair-weather fans on this site. Just yesterday (and the other week) some these same posters were saying how terrible these guys are and trying to throw them under the bus. Now they're all "good job, guys!" like they've been that way all season. That having been said, this is a really impressive win, and they seem to have found a lineup that clicks. Keep it going. A win tomorrow would be great.
donniedem writes:
Really good win...Go Vols, let's win the series today!
ethanfrome writes:
Why to go guys. Quality win, keep them coming. You can still finish with a second half of a season that we can all be proud of.
peerless writes:
Shows what you know! Only a few came from the KIL by the way. Either way, they won a weekend series over the top ranked team in the country on the road no less. What's the saying? There's a sucker born every minute. You are the sucker this minute.
us43137415#376444 writes:
I'm glad the Vol hitters have finally found the bat. But is it, "too little, too late?"
I think that, mathematically, the Vols baseball team has already been eliminated from the SEC Baseball Tournament. Am I right or wrong?
peerless writes:
Mathematically I'm not sure of, but realistically I'm positive. The pitching has been the real problem though. Many losses could have been wins with the runs scored, but we gave up too many big innings to hold defensively. Errors on the left side of the infield haven't helped; however, too many hits and earned runs have been the downfall.
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