Midweek games have already become stumbling blocks for multiple Southeastern Conference baseball teams this season.
Not for Tennessee.
The No. 23 Volunteers on Tuesday won their sixth midweek contest in as many tries this year with a 10-3 drubbing of Eastern Kentucky before a crowd of 5,647 inside Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
Tennessee, which lost two out of three games this past weekend at No. 6 Georgia — including Sunday’s dramatic 8-7 defeat — in the opening SEC series for both programs, improved to 15-6 overall this season. Eastern Kentucky fell to 7-14.
“We turned the page when we got back in town,” Vols first-year coach Josh Elander said Tuesday night in a press conference. “That was a tough one right there, and it was a tough learning experience for our guys. I was proud of how they competed down there.
“It was an incredible play,” Elander added of the game-ending catch by UGA at the wall to end the game, “and unfortunately I had a front-row seat to watching it, but our vibes were great today.”
Tennessee has claimed 14 straight midweek triumphs dating back to last season and is 83-11 in such matchups since 2018, when Tony Vitello was in his first season as coach and had Elander as his hitting coach. The Vols and Colonels have now played 37 times throughout the years, with Tennessee winning 33.
The Vols took all the mystery out of Tuesday’s pairing in the second inning, when their first seven players reached in a five-run outburst.
Reese Chapman’s leadoff walk and Manny Marin’s single to left field got the inning going, and Levi Clark put the Vols on the board with a two-run single up the middle. Jay Abernathy followed with his own single to center, and Trent Grindlinger’s single to left scored Clark to make it 3-0.
Ariel Antigua then walked, and Garrett Wright became the seventh batter to reach with a single to left that scored Abernathy.
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Marin would add a two-run home run to left in the seventh inning, giving Tennessee its largest lead at 10-2, and he would finish 2-of-4 with the two RBIs to increase his season average to .377. He has hit safely in seven straight games.
“He’s doing a lot of things well,” Elander said of Marin. “I think it’s just an attitude. It’s not like there were any issues. It’s just the way he’s approaching each day is much more professional.
“He’s always been incredibly talented.”
The Vols used nine pitchers Tuesday, including former Gordon Lee High School and Kennesaw State standout Bo Rhudy, who struck out the only batter he faced in the ninth to lower his earned run average to 1.23. Former Baylor School standout Henry Ford, who leads Tennessee with 30 hits, 25 RBIs and eight homers, sat out for the first time this season due to an illness.
Tennessee returns to SEC action Friday night at 6:30, when the Vols host Missouri.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.