Wild start a loss for Vols, 9-3

Ty’Relle Harris showed up as a wild thing Friday night. Neither he nor Tennessee ever recovered.

Harris walked the first three Arkansas batters of the game and paid dearly as designated hitter Jason House cleaned the bases with a scorching double down the right-field line.

The No. 7 Razorbacks never looked back in posting a 9-3 SEC win over the Vols at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

Falling in the early hole was a discouraging way to start before a crowd announced at a season-high 2,075.

It did not include head coach Todd Raleigh, who was sitting out a one-game SEC suspension for his second ejection of the season on Tuesday night.

Harris (4-3) walked the first two batters on eight pitches and lost the third on a full count. He struck out the clean-up hitter but House smashed a drive inside the first-base bag that a diving Cody Hawn couldn’t reach.

Harris no doubt wished the first pitch of the second inning had been a ball - third-baseman Zack Cox hit it over the fence for a 4-0 lead. When the next batter singled, Harris was done.

“It’s a tough way to start out because their pitcher is pretty good,’’ said acting coach Bradley LeCroy.

“Any time you spot a team a five-oh lead in three innings and you pretty much just give ‘em the runs, it’s tough.

“When you’re down five-nothing it’s tough on your hitters. Every inning is a pressure situation.’’

Tennessee (19-24, 5-14 SEC) never mounted a serious threat against lefty Dallas Keuchel (6-1). He left after six innings with an 8-2 lead.

Hawn and Cody Brown had RBI hits for the Vols.

Freshman shortstop Zach Osborne hit a seventh-inning solo home run to match Arkansas’ Cox, his high school teammate at Pleasure Ridge Park High in Louisville.

The hitting totals didn’t indicate a six-run margin. Arkansas (28-11, 12-6 SEC) had 11 hits to Tennessee’s nine. The wild start, however, set a tone. Tennessee pitchers walked 10 Razorbacks and hit two more.

All told, four of Arkansas’ runs came from batters who were issued walks and a fifth from a hit-batsman.

Pitching coach Fred Corral wasn’t sure what went wrong with Harris, who had won his past three decisions, including one Sunday at LSU.

This was Harris’ first turn in the Friday slot, opening a series.

“Sometimes we make this game a bit harder than what it is,’’ Corral said.

“Some guys look at the Friday role as more than what it is. I don’t what happened, but he didn’t look like the guy who pitched Sunday at LSU.’’

Left-hander Nick Hernandez will be charged with getting the Vols back on track in the 4 p.m. game today.

Looking for a silver lining, LeCroy reminded the team how last weekend turned out in Baton Rouge after the Vols got blasted 18-3 on Friday night.

“We came out and put it on the number-one team in the country twice,’’ LeCroy said. “That’s the good thing about baseball: You’ve got less than 24 hours to play again.’’

Notebook: UT is No. 64 in this week’s RPI. … Cody Brown played third base for only the sixth time this year, a sign his shoulder must be feeling stronger. Matt Ramsey played right field for the fourth time. … The home run Harris allowed was his 11th, high on the staff this season. … All four UT pitchers walked at least two batters.