Florida baseball evened the weekend series against Tennessee by knocking off the Vols 4-3 in game two of the Friday doubleheader in Gainesville.
Tennessee’s bats were quiet in the loss spoiling a strong starting pitching performance from Drew Beam. Here’s what to know about the Vols’ game two loss.
Back Half Of Tennessee’s Lineup Struggles
The back half of Tennessee’s lineup has struggled as of late and the back half of the lineup became bigger with cleanup hitter Kavares Tears out of the lineup with a lower body injury.
Tennessee’s five through nine hitters struggled in both games in the Friday double header. In game one, that group combined to hit two-for-16, with three walks and one hit-by pitch. To their credit, that group did drive in two runs— one a piece from Dean Curley and Reese Chapman.
Tony Vitello slightly shuffled the lineup in game two but it made little difference as the back of the lineup continued to struggle. Tennessee’s five through nine hitters batted one-for-16 with two walks and 11 strikeouts in game two.
As Tennessee’s offense is in a bit of a slow spell, at least by its high standards, the struggled at the bottom of the lineup are the common theme. It’s putting an abundance of pressure on the top of the lineup to score runs every time they come to the plate.
They’re capable of scoring often, but it’s a lot of pressure to put on the group.
Pair Of Long Balls And Lack Of Run Support Sour Drew Beam’s Day
Drew Beam turned in a very Drew Beam performance.
He attacked the opponent and was unafraid to make mistakes. As is liable to happen when doing that against offenses, Florida made him pay a few times. Both of those times came in the third inning.
Brody Donay led off the bottom half of the inning with a no doubt solo home run to left field to open up the game’s scoring. Colby Shelton made him pay later in the inning with a no doubt two-out, two-run home run to right field.
But besides the two long balls in the inning, it was a strong outing from Beam. He allowed three runs on four hits and a walk while striking out four batters in six innings pitched.
Most times out that outing would have been good enough for him to leave the game with the lead but the lack of run support soured the strong outing.
More From RTI; AJ Causey Shines As Tennessee Takes Game One Over Florida
Missed Scoring Opportunities
Most close games include a couple sequences that you can point back to after the game that proved to be costly or swing the result of the game. There were two critical missed opportunities for Tennessee’s offense in game two of the doubleheader.
A big one came in the first inning. Blake Burke’s one-out triple gave Tennessee a prime scoring opportunity but both Billy Amick and Dylan Dreiling struck out as Florida’s Liam Peterson evaded the first inning threat.
The fourth inning was perhaps Tennessee’s best inning from an offensive process viewpoint of the whole night. Dylan Dreiling worked a one-out walk and Hunter Ensley roped what was nearly a RBI double to left field. Instead, Florida left fielder Hayden Jost made a fantastic over the shoulder, leaping catch for out number two.
Tennessee wasn’t done in the inning. Peterson hit Dalton Bargo and then Dean Curley worked a walk to load the bases. But the Vols couldn’t take advantage as Reese Chapman struck out swinging to strand the bases loaded.
While Tennessee stranded a pair of runners on base in the ninth inning, the bigger miscue came in the bottom of the eighth inning. AJ Causey got what should have been an inning ending double play but a Billy Amick throwing error led to no outs.
That allowed Florida to add an insurance run that proved incredibly crucial in the ninth inning.
Box Score
Up Next
Tennessee and Florida conclude its three-game series on Saturday night at 6:30 p.m. ET. SEC Network+ is streaming the series finale.
