Vols clicking, take two of three from No. 1 LSU, 9-4

BATON ROUGE, La. — Tennessee has the best defense in SEC baseball. Winning two of three weekend games at No. 1-ranked LSU had the look and feel of other pieces clicking into place.

“It’s finally happening for us,” UT first baseman Cody Hawn said after a 9-4 victory Sunday gave the Vols their first SEC road series win since 2007.

“We’re finally getting that big hit when we need it. We’ve been playing hard. We’ve just got to keep it up.”

Hawn and left fielder P.J. Polk each went 2-for-4 with a home run, two runs and two RBIs to help the Vols score the game’s first nine runs in the first four innings.

Senior right-handed starting pitcher Ty’Relle Harris shut out LSU until allowing single runs in the fifth and sixth innings. Freshman relievers Will Locante and Matt Ramsey closed the door after the Tigers added two more against Harris.

Playing the series without leadoff man Josh Liles because of an injury, UT (19-22) improved to 5-13 in the SEC and gave coach Todd Raleigh his first series win on the road in the conference in eight tries.

LSU (28-12) dropped into a tie with Ole Miss for second place in the SEC West at 11-7, half a game behind Arkansas. The Tigers saw their streak of winning nine consecutive SEC series end.

UT’s quick start Sunday put LSU in too deep a hole.

“We did everything right early,” Raleigh said. “We moved runners. We got big hits. Ty’Relle pitched great. It set the tone. We just played a great game.

“I thought we let off the gas a little bit there in the middle innings, but I couldn’t be more proud of our guys. I’m excited. I feel like we turned the corner.”

Not many days ago Raleigh encouraged Harris to finish his senior season with high energy. Harris realized there was no point in going to the ballpark if he didn’t show up with enthusiasm.

The coach’s suggestion was mostly about the days on which Harris wasn’t pitching, but Sunday he was a rocking, firing advertisement for playing with zeal.

“He did a great job,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said.

Harris gave up four runs on eight hits, coming within an out of pitching seven innings. He struck out seven and didn’t walk a batter.

“They made some great plays behind him too,” Mainieri said.

Polk made a running, ducking, tumbling catch in foul territory to retire LSU’s first batter, barely avoiding a collision with shortstop Zach Osborne, whose acrobatic leap over Polk staved off potential injury without keeping Polk from making the catch.

A Ryan Schimpf single later, UT center fielder Kentrail Davis made a spectacular diving catch of a drive off the bat of Blake Dean. Schimpf was nearly at third base when Davis threw to Hawn at first base to complete a breathtaking inning-ending double play.

“I was having nightmares about Dean,” Raleigh said, “but Kentrail made that catch, and I think it took some of the life out of them.”

Harris said his teammates told him they had his back Sunday.

“All they told me was, ‘You let them hit it if you fall behind, and we guarantee you we’ll make the play.’ When a team carries that kind of confidence, you don’t walk guys,” Harris said. “You’ve got to go at them. Those guys believed in me, and I wasn’t going to let them down.”

Harris recalled a team meeting a few weeks ago, when the Vols realized there was no place lower than where they stood in the SEC.

“Cody Brown led the meeting, and we talked about how we had nothing to lose,” Harris said. “What, were we going to go even deeper into last place? We were going to come out and fight.

“We knew we had some big series coming up. Last year we swept LSU, so we came here looking for a sweep, or at least two games.”

Harris, a noted team prankster, wasn’t joking when he talked about the future.

“Look for us at Hoover,” he said, referencing the Alabama location for the SEC tournament before predicting his younger Vols teammates will be in a College World Series in a couple of years. “We’re looking good.”