Tennessee extended its success in midweek baseball games Tuesday night at Lipscomb’s expense.
Sending 11 to the plate in the first inning can do that.
The Volunteers scored six runs in the opening inning and had 11 runs through four innings in their eventual 14-4 blowout of the Bisons before a crowd of 6,146 at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. The game was called in the middle of the seventh inning.
Tennessee has scored 27 runs in its last 14 innings at the plate, having defeated visiting Ole Miss 13-5 on Sunday afternoon.
“Our guys have a lot more confidence,” Vols redshirt sophomore catcher Stone Lawless said afterward in a press conference. “I think we’ve seen what we’re able to do. We’ve stacked a couple of games on top of each other, so hopefully this can snowball into this weekend and go forward from there.”
Tennessee improved to 27-14 overall and to 11-0 in midweek contests, while Lipscomb dropped to 17-20. The Vols are 88-11 in midweek games since 2018.
Garrett Wright, Lawless and Manny Marin each drove in three runs for the Vols, with Wright going 5-for-5.
Tennessee produced its early outburst via four singles, two walks and two hit batters. Wright led off the first inning with a single up the middle, and he singled to right field the second time he came up to score Blaine Brown and Marin, who reached on a two-run single to left.
The Vols opened the third inning with a Lawless walk, Brown’s two-run home run to left and Marin’s solo homer to left. Lawless, who returned to the plate Sunday for the first time since being struck in the face by a pitch at Vanderbilt on March 29, hit a two-run homer to left in the fourth inning that put Tennessee up 11-4.
“The first week was pretty tough,” Lawless said of his recovery. “I had some concussion stuff that was kind of the biggest issue. I got pretty fortunate in the face department, because it was just some small fractures in the nose. I was grateful for the end result.”
Said Vols coach Josh Elander: “He’s an easy guy to root for, and all the success he gets is earned in a lot of different ways. He hasn’t had a ton of ABs, so some guys may want to chase some hits at the beginning, but he mixed in a walk and a homer.”
(SIGN UP: Get the daily sports newsletter in your email box by clicking here)
The Vols next host No. 19 Alabama, with Thursday night’s series opener starting at 7 on ESPN2.
Lady Vols win
Sage Mardjetko and Karlyn Pickens combined on a two-hitter Tuesday night as the No. 11 Tennessee Lady Vols defeated Radford 2-1. Mardjetko started and worked into the sixth inning, racking up 10 strikeouts.
Tennessee, which improved to 38-7, played for the first time since last Wednesday’s 6-3 loss at Duke.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.