Ben Joyce makes first start for Vols, but Georgia spoils the occasion

Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello continued to explore his pitching possibilities during Saturday afternoon's series finale against Georgia inside Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

Too many Tates foiled his latest experiment.

Hard-throwing Volunteers reliever Ben Joyce made his first start of the season and had a pitch clocked at 104.9 mph, but Bulldogs twin brothers Cole and Connor Tate drove in two runs apiece during a decisive seventh inning as the guests broke free from a 3-3 deadlock for an 8-3 triumph. Saturday's game marked Tennessee's Southeastern Conference home finale, and the top-ranked Vols dropped to 45-7 overall and 22-5 in league play.

"Right now, I feel bad that we lost," Vitello said, "but tomorrow I'll feel good about getting a day off and about what's ahead of us. I feel good about where we're supposed to be at this point in the year.

"We kind of know what guys can and can't do, and we've spread out the repetitions a little bit."

The Vols clinched their first SEC regular-season title since 1995 with Friday night's 9-2 downing of Georgia coupled with Vanderbilt's 9-6, 10-inning win at Arkansas.

Joyce threw a season-high 67 pitches in the first four innings, and all 53 of his fastballs were clocked at a minimum of 100 mph. The 6-foot-5, 225-pound redshirt junior from Knoxville had 20 of his throws top 103.

In a 5-3 defeat of Auburn on May 2, Joyce tallied 53 pitches in the final four innings and set an NCAA record with a pitch clocked at 105.5. His stout velocity Saturday kept the Bulldogs scoreless through three innings, but the fourth was quite different as Chaney Rogers connected for a two-run home run to right field and Fernando Gonzalez launched a solo shot to left in consecutive at-bats to put Georgia up 3-2.

"He's earned it, so we gave it to him," Vitello said of Joyce's first start. "We got better because he was able to go out there and pitch a little bit really for only the second time. He's shown that he can throw long relief, and he's also come in and gotten us out of a couple of jams.

"He's a well-rounded pitcher."

Kirby Connell replaced Joyce and worked the fifth and sixth innings, facing the minimum batters and recording five swinging strikeouts.

"It was basically just keeping them off balance," Connell said."It really helped coming in after Ben, because they were hunting his heater, and then he'd throw them the slider. With Ben throwing so hard and me not throwing so hard, it kind of keeps them off balance."

Drew Beam, who had compiled an 8-0 record in 12 starts before Saturday, entered in relief for the first time this season in the seventh. Beam gave up three consecutive one-out singles to load the bases and was pulled by Vitello in favor of Redmond Walsh.

That's when the Tates struck, with Cole collecting a two-run single and Connor a two-run homer that enabled the Bulldogs to improve to 33-18 overall and 14-13 within the SEC.

"This weekend was rare not to have (Chase) Burns and Beam in the starting rotation," Connell said, "but it's good to see that we've got five or six starters now. It's going to really help us in the long run."

Tennessee's final week of the regular season contains a Tuesday home game with Belmont and a Thursday-through-Saturday series at reigning national champion Mississippi State.

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.

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