The Tennessee Volunteers are back in the championship game of the Southeastern Conference baseball tournament, but not before surviving the peskiest program in this 12-team event.
Top-ranked Tennessee finally broke free from Kentucky, a 12th seed that had eliminated Auburn, Vanderbilt and LSU to reach Saturday night’s second semifinal, with a four-run eighth inning that broke a 2-2 deadlock and catapulted the Volunteers to a 12-2 triumph in Hoover, Alabama. It was another late, late night for the Vols, who officially improved to 52-7 on Sunday morning at 1:47 Eastern.
“To be honest, they rode out some pretty good pitchers,” Tennessee right fielder Jordan Beck said on the SEC Network of the resilient Wildcats. “I kind of thought everybody would be a little low on the staffs, but they rode out some guys who could throw. I wasn’t expecting that, but they slowed us down early.
“Once we got deeper into their pen, we started swinging the bats a little better and started seeing the ball a little better.”
Tennessee loaded the bases in the eighth against Wildcats reliever Zack Lee, who then hit Jorel Ortega with a pitch and would throw a wild pitch to make it a 4-2 game. Cortland Lawson then connected for a two-run double to left-center field to provide more breathing room for the Vols, who reached last year’s title game before falling to Arkansas 7-2.