KNOXVILLE —Tennessee spent the entire month of April trying to get back to .500 in Southeastern Conference baseball play.
The Volunteers finally met that mark Saturday night, and they did so emphatically.
Before a Lindsey Nelson Stadium crowd of 7,194, Tennessee racked up six home runs and 16 total hits during a 14-9 pounding of No. 3 Texas to clinch the best-of-three series. The Vols improved to 34-17 overall and to 13-13 within the league, potentially punching their NCAA tournament ticket in the process under first-year coach Josh Elander.
“One thing we try to do in the fall and early spring is make sure these guys know what they’re walking into,” Elander said. “We do actually show them a slide in the fall with the percentages of teams with 12 (SEC) wins, 13 wins, 14 wins and 15 wins, and the whole point is to show them to keep the ball in front or execute pitches, because that can be the difference between 13, 14, 15, 16 and 12 or 11.
“The difference between 13, 14 and 15 can be a huge swing as you go from there. We didn’t have a good start to SEC play, and there’s no doubt about it, but we were just staying in each day, and it’s good to get to that number for sure.”