Auburn led 3-0 after the first, but then things went way bad for the folks on the Plains
Tennessee followed its 12-2, run-rule beatdown on Saturday with an even more impressive offensive performance, as it hit six home runs, again, hit another grand slam and beat Auburn 19-5 in the series-securing win.
The Vols went down in order in the top of the first against Auburn starter Will Cannon, but that would end up the only scoreless half inning of the game for the bats.
The Tigers jumped on Vols’ starter Zander Sechrist immediately with two singles and a three-run home run from its first three batters, but Sechrist settled down and sat down the next three hitters in order to end the top half of the first. Auburn led 3-0 after one inning, but it didn’t last.
UT threw up seven in the second inning when Kavares Tears drew a lead-off walk, Dalton Bargo singled, Hunter Ensley got hit by a pitch and Dean Curley took a four-pitch walk to load the bases. Cal Stark, the last bat in the Vols’ order, decided to pop off for his third home run of the season and Tennessee’s ninth grand slam of the year.
As seen in the video above, this was Stark’s second grand slam of the year. Stark ended up with a career day, which we’ll get to in a minute, but eight of his 13 RBI’s of the season have come via grand slam.
The home runs came in a pair, as Christian Moore continued the streak of consecutive hits in the inning with his 13th home run — a solo shot — from the lead-off spot, which now puts him back in front of Dylan Dreiling for the team lead in long balls.
That was Moore’s third home run of the series as he continues to just knock the cover off the ball. He’s second on the team in hits since SEC play started and first in total bases.
Tennessee plated one more run that started with a Dylan Dreiling double. Auburn didn’t help itself, as the run scored after a wild pitch, a walk and an error. Four hits, seven runs and UT had a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
Sechrist sat the three Tigers he faced in the bottom of the second down in order with three fly-ball outs.
Auburn changed pitchers after Moore’s home run, but Tennessee put four runs on two Tiger relief pitchers in the T3. Dean Curley hit a lead-off double, Reese Chapman drew a full-count walk, and Stark struck again, this time with a three-run shot to to left.
Auburn just couldn’t get outs — Christian Moore followed Stark again, this time with a walk, but then Burke singled before the Tigers finally got two consecutive outs. But the second relief pitcher of the inning followed his two outs by plunking Hunter Ensley and forcing another run across home. Tennessee ended up leaving the bases full, but it scored four runs on three hits and led 11-3 after 3.5 innings.
Nate Snead got the ball to start the third and allowed a lead-off single but then struck out two of the next three batters to get out of the inning without allowing any runs.
UT’s offense was like a Boa constrictor with the relentless pressure it put on the Tigers’ pitching staff. Tennessee plated two more runs in the fourth, three in the fifth, one in the sixth and two more in the seventh to end up a safety short of a three-touchdown day on the scoreboard.
Tennessee hit six home runs on the day — two from Stark, one from Moore, one from Kavares Tears, one from Dreiling and one from Curley. It doubled up Auburn in hits, 16-8, and the defense didn’t commit an error.
Snead threw four innings and gave up five hits and two runs. I saw him hit triple digits on the broadcast’s radar gun at least once, and he struck out three with 50 of his 67 total pitches going for strikes. Vitello brought in Andrew Behnke in the seventh to get him some work, and Behnke ended the game with one strikeout while sitting the final three Tigers down in order.
This marked the Vols’ second-straight SEC series win after they took two of three games from UGA last weekend.
