October 3, 2024

Baseball Vols drop series to Alabama

Tennessee’s baseball team struggled to find consistency in its weekend series at Alabama.

March 9, 2016 - Johnson City, Tennessee - Thomas Stadium Image Credit: Dakota Hamilton/ETSU

Tennessee baseball (14-9, 5-4 SEC) lost its weekend series against SEC foe, Alabama (15-8, 4-2 SEC), but avoided a sweep by winning the last game of series on Saturday. Throughout the series, the Vols scored early, but could not hold onto leads.

Game One (Friday): Alabama 7, Tennessee 3

Early in the first inning of game one, things were looking good for Tennessee as Nick Senzel blasted a two-run home run and Leno Ramirez hit an RBI ground out. Tennessee was able to collect nine hits throughout the game, but that would not be enough to win the game. Alabama was able to battle back in the third inning by scoring two runs, as well as four runs in the fifth, and one more run in the eighth. The Crimson Tide had 11 hits in the game.

Game Two (Saturday): Alabama 11, Tennessee 3

Game two of the series started off slow. Each team only had one hit through four innings. However, in the fifth frame, Tennessee was able to break through first by plating a run in off a Derek Lane sacrifice fly. In the sixth inning, Tennessee notched another run by an RBI single from Benito Santiago. Alabama then decided to use the sixth inning as its breakthrough inning. The Tide plated four runs off of three walks and two gap hits in the bottom half of the sixth.

Game Three (Saturday): Tennessee 6, Alabama 3

In the last game of the series, Tennessee was able to score six runs to get the win and avoid the sweep. The Vols scored three runs in the first two innings with two outs, and later plated three more runs in the top half of ninth inning with two outs. In the ninth, Benito Santiago hit a double to set up Chris Hall’s RBI single. Vincent Jackson was able to add some insurance runs with a two-run triple.

Featured image by Dakota Hamilton

Edited by Cody McClure