Tennessee baseball completed a strong weekend in Houston with a 5-1 victory over Arizona to improve to 11-0 on the season.
The home run ball carried Tennessee again while the Vols used five different pitchers to shut down a solid Arizona offense. Here’s how the Vols got it done on Sunday.
Vols Get The Ball To Snead In Middle Of Game
Tennessee went with freshman Tegan Kuhns on the mound in an opener role just five days after he made his career debut against North Alabama. But Tennessee’s plan was clear all along. They wanted to get the ball to junior Nate Snead in the middle of the game.
Kuhns was solid allowing one run on two hits in his two innings pitched. Left-handed pitcher Brandon Arvidson got five outs before exiting the game and making way for Snead with two outs in the fourth inning. Snead’s not a starter for Tennessee but there are few, if any, pitchers on the Vols’ roster that Tony Vitello and Frank Anderson trust more.
After closing out Tennessee’s win over Oklahoma State on Friday, Snead threw 3.2 innings against Arizona and kept the Wildcats off the scoreboard despite allowing four hits and a pair of walks. The junior right hander handed the ball to Dylan Loy with one out in the eighth inning and Tennessee leading by three runs.
How Tennessee used Snead in Houston shows why he’s so valuable for the Vols. They used him twice in 4.2 innings and he was critical in the Vols winning their two most competitive games.
Tennessee Finds Limited Success Against Smith Bailey With Pair Of Home Runs
Arizona gave the ball to freshman pitcher Smith Bailey in the weekend finale and the right hander gave Tennessee fits early in his outing. He retired the first eight Tennessee batters he faced before Jay Abernathy singled to right field with two outs in the third inning.
But Bailey struck out Dean Curley to end the third inning threat and went back to work retiring the first two batters of the fourth inning. That’s where Tennessee finally found some success against Bailey.
Cleanup hitter Andrew Fischer nuked a two-out solo home run 369 feet into the right field bleachers to get Tennessee on the board. Levi Clark one-upped Fischer making it back-to-back home runs with a 388-foot home run that landed on the train tracks in left field.
Those two home runs didn’t open the floodgates. Bailey retired the side in the order in the fifth inning before exiting the game with one-out and one-on in the sixth inning. But Tennessee’s two home runs against Bailey gave them the lead when he exited.
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A Game Changing Sequence
Tennessee was hanging on to a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the sixth inning when a slow rolling Maddox Mihalakis grounder found a soft spot in the infield to give Arizona runners on first and second with two outs.
There was nothing slow about about the single Adonys Guzman roped into left field. Arizona sent Garen Caulfield, the runner on second, to the plate and freshman Jay Abernathy gunned him down a good five steps shy of home plate to maintain the Vols’ 2-1 lead.
The boys are playing some defense today!
https://t.co/HVNnJpRca7#GBO // #BeatArizona pic.twitter.com/sDrR3GgbIk
— Tennessee Baseball (@Vol_Baseball) March 2, 2025
Abernathy throwing out the game tying run at the plate was one of a number of strong defensive plays Tennessee made including Cannon Peebles catching a runner stealing.
Peebles had a big impact at the plate too and he did it just three at-bats after Abernathy threw Caulfield out at home. Reese Chapman reached on a single to open the inning and after Manny Marin struck out, Peebles hit one to the second deck in right field.
In a four at-bat sequence, the game went from potentially being tied to Tennessee being up 4-1 with some needed breathing room.
Final Stats
Up Next
Tennessee baseball returns to the field on Tuesday night when they host Radford at 6 p.m. ET at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. It’s the first of two midweek games for Tennessee this week as they face a solid Xavier team on Wednesday night.
