Tennessee baseball jumped on Mississippi State early and didn’t look back, coasting to an 13-2 run-rule victory to secure the series sweep.
The Vols hit a trio of three-run homers and Drew Beam was consistently effective on the mound as Tennessee earned its seventh straight win and improved to above .500 in SEC play for the first time this season.
Here’s everything you need to know about the Saturday afternoon victory.
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A Simple, Winning Formula For Tennessee In The Bottom Of The First Inning
Tennessee scored six first inning runs to open up a healthy early lead on Mississippi State in the series finale. The Vols didn’t do anything super crazy but they let Bulldogs’ starter Jurrangelo Cijntje make mistakes and then they capitalized in massive ways.
The both-handed pitcher promptly walked the first two batters of the day and Jared Dickey stayed hot, homering to centerfield to give the Vols a 3-0 lead. Cijntje momentarily calmed his command issues retiring the next two batters but then it alluded him again.
Dylan Dreiling and Zane Denton walked to give Tennessee a pair of baserunners before Christian Scott continued the trend. The super senior is seeing the ball well as of late and has had a few near homers as of late.
Scott snuck a 350 foot homer over the right field wall and despite recording just two hits in the inning the Vols hit around and totaled six runs while taking a five run lead.
Tennessee has consistently had offensive success early in the last two weeks and it continued Saturday. The Vols never looked back after the hot start.
Christian Moore … Again
Apologies for running back a portion of my story yesterday, but Christian Moore continued to break out of his slump in a massive way for Tennessee.
The second baseman made a careless error that kept the first inning alive and led to Mississippi State taking an early 1-0 lead. But the talented sophomore more than made up for it with a massive day at the plate.
Moore extended Tennessee’s lead to 9-1 in the second inning when he went opposite field for a three-run homer with two-outs. The Brooklyn native added another homer in the fourth inning when he golfed a low breaking ball into the left field porches.
In the final two games of the series Moore went four-of-nine with three home runs, four extra-base hits and six RBIs.
I won’t give the full recap of what Moore’s re-emergence means for Tennessee’s offense but he’s one of the Vols’ most talented batters and raises the offense’s ceiling by a good bit.
Drew Beam In Cruise Control
Drew Beam allowed an unearned run in the first inning on the previously mentioned Dakota Jordan triple. He wouldn’t surrender another hit until the sixth inning.
The sophomore right hander put it on cruise control against the Bulldogs and made easy work of a strong Mississippi State lineup that gave the Vols issues the first two games of the series.
Beam had fantastic command and pounded the strike zone and let his defense work behind him. That is to say it was a vintage Beam performance.
The Murfreesboro native did surrender a walk in the fourth inning but immediately induced a 4-6-3 double play to get out of the inning.
When Colton Ledbetter took him deep to right in the sixth inning it ended a streak where he retired 14 of 15 straight batters with one of them being the previously mentioned double play.
The right-hander went the distance, allowing just two runs, one earned run, three hits in his second seven inning outing of the season.
After a poor start two weeks ago at Arkansas, Beam has been fantastic in consecutive starts helping the Vols complete sweeps each of the last two weekends.
Final Stats
Up Next
Tennessee returns to Lindsey Nelson Stadium for the final game of its nine-game home stand Tuesday night against Wofford. First pitch is at 6:30 p.m. ET.
