Amick, Beam, Burke shine as No. 8 Vols improve to 10-1

Tennessee Athletics photo / Tennessee first baseman Blake Burke is congratulated by teammates after one of his two home runs during Saturday's 12-1 whipping of Bowling Green.
Tennessee Athletics photo / Tennessee first baseman Blake Burke is congratulated by teammates after one of his two home runs during Saturday's 12-1 whipping of Bowling Green.

Tennessee on Sunday afternoon will look to complete a three-game sweep of Bowling Green inside Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

The Falcons will look to play a nine-inning contest.

Blake Burke hit two home runs while Christian Moore and Billy Amick homered once Saturday as the No. 8 Volunteers rolled to a 12-1 triumph that was called after seven innings due to a run rule. The Vols won 11-1 in Friday's series opener, which was halted after eight innings.

"Blake has settled in and is not trying to take the world by storm," Tennessee coach Tony Vitello said afterward in a news conference. "He's worked hard to be the hitter that he is."

A crowd of 5,343 watched Tennessee improve to 10-1 this season.

DJ Newman's leadoff home run to right-center field off Drew Beam put Bowling Green up 1-0, but the Vols answered with back-to-back shots in their half of the first inning, with Moore opening with a homer to left and Burke following with a homer to right. Beam wound up working six innings and striking out nine batters in improving to 2-0 and lowering his earned run average to 1.54.

"Finally, everything clicked," Beam said. "The last few games I haven't had my whole arsenal. Everything was working tonight, and I just had a good feel for everything."

Tennessee held that 2-1 lead until the third inning, when Burke opened with a double to left and Amick followed with a homer to right for a 4-1 advantage. It was the seventh homer in Amick's 11 games with the Vols.

Burke collected his second homer of the game in the sixth with a blast to right that made it 6-1. That homer was part of a seven-run inning, with each run occurring with two outs.

Amick and Burke each had three hits and drove in two runs, with Amick raising his average to .432 and Burke to .386.

"I feel like I'm able to show what kind of hitter I am," Burke said. "I'm a hitter first, and I have power added on. I've been having good at-bats, and this is kind of the result of that."

Vitello did not name the starting pitcher for Sunday's series finale against the Falcons (2-6), which will start at 1.

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.

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