Henry Ford led off Saturday’s bottom of the first inning for Tennessee with a home run to right field.
It would be the first and last run of the game for the 13th-ranked Volunteers.
Josh Elander suffered his initial defeat as Tennessee’s head baseball coach, as Kent State posted a 2-1 victory before a record 7,001 fans inside Lindsey Nelson Stadium. The Vols dropped to 5-1 overall and 1-1 against the Golden Flashes, who atoned for Friday night’s 4-3 loss that was decided by Tyler Myatt’s leadoff homer in the ninth.
Saturday’s Vols went 0-for-15 with runners on base and 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
“I think a little bit of it was our guys just trying to do too much,” Elander said. “We had ducks on the pond all night and couldn’t execute at all up to our standards. We just need to slow down a little.”
Kent State, which went 38-18 last year and was 23-7 in the Mid-American Conference, is 4-2 so far this season. The Golden Flashes suffered their first loss Tuesday night, 10-7 at No. 2 LSU, the reigning national champion.
The Flashes scored both of their runs in the fifth inning, benefiting from Ford’s fielding error at third base and Ariel Antigua’s throwing error at second. Elander was asked about losing a contest in which his two pitchers, Landon Mack and Brandon Arvidson, combined for 16 strikeouts.
“That’s an easy way to look at it, but we talk about winning and losing as a team all the time,” Elander said. “There are going to be times we win games 10-8 or even 12-11. Our guys know they need to execute better, no doubt, but I am excited about the way those guys threw the baseball.”
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Tennessee had an opportunity in the eighth inning, when Myatt and Stone Lawless were hit by pitches with one out, but Manny Marin flied out to center and Jay Abernathy grounded out to second. It was a quiet ninth for the Vols, with Chris Newstrom flying out to center, Trent Grindlinger grounding out to short and Ford flying out to center.
Sunday’s rubber match is scheduled for 1 p.m.
“I think you find out a lot about your team after the first loss,” Elander said. “We’ve made it a big theme around here to show up on Sundays, which we didn’t always do last year. This is our first test.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.