Game Recap: Baseball | June 01, 2024
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Top-ranked Tennessee’s high-powered offense showed up in a big way in Saturday night’s 12-6 victory over Indiana in front of another sold-out crowd at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
The Big Orange blasted four home runs over the first four innings, including a Billy Amick grand slam in the top of the third, to build an early lead.
A pair of two-run homers in the second from Dean Curley and Christian Moore allowed UT to jump out to a quick 4-0 lead before adding five more runs in the second, four of which came on one swing from Amick.
Cal Stark joined in on the home run parade with a solo shot into the porches into the top of the fourth inning, his seventh four bagger of the season.
A Kavares Tears single resulted in two more Tennessee runs in the fifth that extended the lead to 12-4 and ended up being the final runs of the night for the Big Orange.
Andrew Behnke’s career-high 3.1 innings of relief highlighted another solid night from the pitching staff. The sophomore lefty earned the win to improve to 3-1 on the year after allowing just three hits and no runs while striking out three in his outing.
After the Hoosiers (33-25-1) plated a pair of runs in the eighth inning to cut their deficit to six, the Vols turned to Aaron Combs in relief and the redshirt junior righthander delivered with four strikeouts over the final 1.2 innings to finish the game.
Five different players finished with two hits on the night as Tennessee had 13 base knocks for the game.
Leadoff hitter Devin Taylor hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the third for Indiana while Andrew Wiggins and Josh Pyne both added a pair of hits for the Hoosiers.
Starting pitcher Connor Foley allowed just four hits but walked seven and hit two batters to give up eight runs on the night in just 2.1 innings.
UP NEXT: The Vols will await the winner of Sunday’s elimination game between Indiana and Southern Miss, which will begin at noon ET. First pitch for Tennessee’s game against the winner is slated for 6 p.m. Television information is to be determined.
STAT OF THE GAME: Amick’s third-inning grand slam was the 12th of the year for the Vols, which is tied for the second most in a single season in NCAA history with Oklahoma State’s 1996 team. Amick is the third UT player this season to hit two grand slams, joining Cal Stark and Blake Burke.
