STARKVILLE – Behind some strong pitching and relentless hitting, Tennessee grabbed Game 2 of its SEC series at No. 9 Mississippi State 6-2 for the series victory.
The loss for Mississippi State (26-9, 7-7 SEC) is the team’s fifth straight conference defeat after getting swept by Georgia last week, while the Volunteers (23-12, 6-8 SEC) celebrated their first SEC series win in over two weeks.
Reese Chapman got the Vols on the board with a solo home run, his fourth of the year, in the first inning to light the fuse to some offensive fireworks, which exploded in the second inning with three more runs. An RBI double by Levi Clark got the party started, Jay Abernanthy brought the music with a sacrifice bunt toward third base to score Manny Marin and Garrett Wright opened up the lawn chairs with a sacrifice fly to bring home Clark.
MSU starting pitcher Duke Stone (5-1) was dealt his first loss on the mound and struggled to keep the Vols off the bases through his 5 2/3 innings. Dane Burns came in for relief after Stone allowed Tennessee its fifth run of the night, an RBI double by Wright down the third-base line. He finished the game with 11 hits given up, five earned runs and three strikeouts.
The Bulldogs’ usually productive offense, which leads the SEC with a .325 batting average, was kept silent through the first four innings due to some impeccable pitching by Tennessee flamethrower Tegan Kuhns. The sophomore right-hander improved his record to 2-3 on the season as he kept the Bulldogs off the bases until the second when he walked Jacob Parker.
That walk turned out to be the only help the Bulldogs got from Kuhns. He kept MSU hitless through four innings as he piled up seven strikeouts. Jacob Parker broke through for the Bulldogs and got on base with a single, and Gehrig Frei followed up with a single to put runners on the corners. Ryder Woodson doubled down the third-base line to get the Bulldogs on the board.
Frei sent the first ball he saw in the bottom of the seventh inning screaming over the right-center wall to cut the Bulldogs deficit to 5-2. While the sudden score brought some much needed enthusiasm to the team, the Vols quickly erased it in the top of the eight with an RBI double by Abernathy.
That score prompted a pitching change for MSU and Burns, who gave up two hits and one earned run with two strikeouts, was replaced by freshman right-hander Jack Gleason. He closed out the game with three strikeouts.
The loss marks the first time State was held to under nine hits since Game 2 against Georgia. Frei and Ryder Wood led the team with two hits.
MSU looks to fend off getting swept for the second straight week Sunday at 1 p.m.
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