Liles' single lifts Vols in bottom of ninth, 5-4

It was only the season opener, but Tennessee’s baseball team celebrated like it won a College World Series game Friday night.

The Vols scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth and beat No. 25-ranked Oregon State 5-4 before 2,048 fans at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

UT (1-0) scored four of its five runs with two-out hits, including Josh Liles’ game-winning RBI single. Blake Forsythe’s leadoff homer in the third was UT’s only run that came without two outs.

“(UT) Coach (Todd) Raleigh always talks about getting runners on base and making stuff happen,” said Liles, a sophomore right fielder. “When you get two outs, nothing changes. It’s still the same game.”

Today’s second game of the three-game series starts at 2 p.m.

Oregon State (0-1) took a 4-3 lead with an unearned run in the ninth when freshman shortstop Zach Osborne made a throwing error that allowed leadoff batter Adalberto Santos to reach.

Other than that play, Osborne looked like a veteran. He saved a run in the fifth with a diving stop on Stefen Romero’s grounder up the middle for an out, and saved another run in the sixth when he took Ryan Ortiz’s one-hop grounder and threw to first for the out. Both plays ended the inning.

“I know (Osborne) made one error, but he had a ripped (eye) contact,” Raleigh said. “That’s not making excuses for him, but he did have to replace them. We had to send somebody to the dorm on a dead sprint (to get new contacts), but he played great.”

With two out in the ninth, the Vols’ Ty’Relle Harris was relieved by freshman Will Locante. Pinch hitter Jared Norris hit a 0-2 pitch for an RBI single up the middle. Norris was picked off first to end the inning.

“(Locante) got to 0-2 and hung a breaking ball,” Raleigh said. “I wanted him to Xerox that (previous) pitch.”

It set up the Vols’ ninth-inning heroics against Oregon State closer Kevin Rhoderick, who had 12 of the Beavers’ 15 saves last season.

Junior college transfer Mike Hornsby entered to pinch-hit for ninth-hitting Jarred Frazier starting the ninth.

Hornsby fouled off several pitches before hitting a single up the middle.

“Definitely, hat’s off to Mike Hornsby for that battle he had,” said the Vols’ Cody Hawn, who hit a two-out, two-run double in the third. “(Rhoderick) is one of the better closers in the nation and Mike went seven or eight pitches with him and battled and got the hit.”

Hornsby went to second on Osborne’s second consecutive sacrifice bunt. Cody Brown hit a popup for the second out.

Kentrail Davis followed with a sharp grounder down the line that was knocked down by first baseman Romero, who scrambled to get the ball in foul territory next to first base.

As Davis beat Romero’s throw to Rhoderick at first base, Hornsby rounded third and scored easily to tie the game at 4-all. Davis went to second on a balk, and Hawn was intentionally walked.

Liles then won the game with a line drive to right-center field.

“To see what happened that last inning was phenomenal,” Raleigh said. “Just seeing how we did all the little things, I was really excited. I usually don’t get too fired up early on, but I was pretty fired up.”