An eighth-inning rally led the Morehead State Eagles to a 4-1 win over the Tennessee Volunteerss Saturday at Lindsey Nelson Stadium after Vols' starting pitcher Nick Hernandez pitched over seven innings of scoreless baseball Saturday.

The bullpen collapse by the Vols handed head coach Todd Raleigh the first loss of his career at Tennessee and evened the three-game weekend series at one game apiece.

"There's a lot of different ways to lose games," Raleigh said following the loss. "When you pitch like that at home, you expect to win."

Volunteer third-basemen Cody Brown led his team offensively going 3-for-4 from the plate with two doubles and a single. Brown shared Raleigh's disappointment in the teams play.

"That's the best Nick has ever pitched in his college career," Brown said. "That's what kills me more than anything is seeing him pitch like that and we can't come out and get a win for him."

Hernandez faced 25 batters in his seven innings of work, striking out four and giving up only three hits and one-earned run in his best start as a Vol. The sophomore was tormented by control issues in his freshman campaign last season as he walked 43 batters and won only four times in eight decisions.

Eagle reliever Michael Bottoms picked up the win after striking out two batters in his two scoreless innings. Aaron Everett took the loss for the Vols, giving up three earned runs on three hits in two-thirds of an inning.

"The ball is round and it comes in a square box." Hernandez said. "Any given day anyone can go out there and win. With my performance today you expect to win, but that happens in baseball."

The game was scoreless until the bottom of the third inning when Tennessee's Josh Liles reached base on an error by Eagle third basemen Andrew Wertz. Daniel Beasley advanced from third to score on the play, giving the Vols their only run of the game.

The next four innings were dominated by the pitchers until Morehead State began their rally in the top of the eighth inning. Hernandez issued his only walk of the game after retiring the first batter of the inning, and Raleigh then called Everett out of the bullpen.

The junior managed to strike out the first batter he faced for second out of the inning, but the next batter reached base on a fielder's choice. Lee Drew then lined an RBI single into left field to even the score.

Eric Allen followed up with a two-RBI double and advanced to third on the throw to home plate. Michael Bottoms then widened the margin to three runs with a single to left field.

The win for the Eagles snapped a 13-game losing streak against the Vols and was only their second win in 28 meetings with Tennessee. Morehead last beat UT in 2002.

"The longer they stayed in it, the longer they thought they had a chance to win it," Raleigh said. "That's exactly what happened, so hopefully we'll learn from that."

The rubber match of the series will take place Sunday at Lindsey Nelson Stadium with the first pitch scheduled to be thrown at 1 p.m.