Tennessee baseball improved to 17-0 on the 2025 season Tuesday evening, knocking off West Georgia 4-2 at Lindsey Nelson Stadium in its final game before its SEC opener this weekend.
It was a modest margin of victory after five straight wins by double-digits but a win nonetheless. Here’s how the Vols got it done against North Georgia.
Andrew Fischer Stays Red-Hot
By no means was Ole Miss transfer Andrew Fischer struggling in the first 10 games of the season. But his power hitting numbers were a tad lacking compared to the sky-high expectations around him entering the season.
In the last seven games, Fischer has taken things to an insane level with his hitting as a while but particularly the power numbers. After hitting one-of-three with an opposite field two-run homer and a sac fly on Tuesday night, Fischer has now gone deep seven times this season.
West Georgia right fielder Landon Weidner kept Fischer from having an even bigger game, making a pair of diving catches to rob the left-handed slugger from a pair of extra-base hits.
Dating back to Tennessee’s Sunday finale against Arizona in Houston, Fischer is hitting seven-of-19 with six home runs, eight walks and 15 RBI.
Fischer is hitting like a force in the middle of Tennessee’s lineup and that continued against West Georgia. He enters SEC play red-hot.
Thomas Crabtree Leads The Way On A Bullpen Day
Tennessee took its normal midweek pitching approach, throwing nine different pitchers with all but one throwing only one inning or less.
But Thomas Crabtree was the exception as the right-handed pitcher was stellar in 3,1 innings of work. Crabtree retired the first 10 batters he faced including all three batters in a seven-pitch fifth inning and again with a nine-pitch sixth inning.
Crabtree’s day finally came to an end in the seventh inning when Blake Bradford’s one-out single gave the Wolves a baserunner. It was the best outing of Crabtree’s short Tennessee career by a long shot and it came in a great spot because of how narrow the Vols’ lead was while the junior college pitcher was in the game.
Brayden Krenzel had a nice outing as an opener and Brandon Arvidson was also sharp, retiring the two batters he faced after Crabtree exited.
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Tennessee Struggles Hitting With Runners In-Scoring Position
Tennessee’s four runs was a quiet midweek offensive showing especially compared to its very high standards. The lesser offensive output was less about Tennessee struggling as a whole on offense and more about stranding runners on base.
The Vols hit a solid four-of-14 with runners on-base and a much worse one-for-eight with runners in-scoring position. Tennessee also had a handful of two-out rallies that didn’t produce any runs. Over the course of the game, the Vols left 11 runners stranded on-base.
From the third to the fifth inning, Tennessee left two runners on base each inning and then in the sixth inning they had the bases loaded with no-one out and scored just one run after the previously mentioned diving catch on a hard hit Fischer fly ball in the gap and then a Levi Clark double play ball.
Tennessee did get one significant two-out hit when Chris Newstrom roped a RBI single to left field in the fifth inning.
Box Score
Up Next
Things get real for Tennessee baseball this weekend when they host Florida in its SEC opener at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. Its a top 10 series between the Vols and Gators after both teams made it to Omaha last season.
