Vols Victorious Over Vanderbilt in Final Home Game of the Regular Season

Sunday, May 13

Knoxville

12 P.M. ET

University of Tennessee

28-25, 11-16

Vanderbilt

27-24, 13-14

Vanderbilt

Tennessee

Photo by: Alison P. McNabb\Tennessee Athletics

Vols Victorious Over Vanderbilt in Final Home Game of the Regular Season

May 13, 2018 | Baseball

Box Score Highlights Postgame Media PDF Box Score

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee battled back for an important 8-7 win after giving up an early four-run lead in Sunday's series finale against Vanderbilt at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

Andre Lipcius' two-run single with the bases loaded in the sixth inning was the difference as the Volunteers held on for their 11^th victory in conference play this season. Lipcius and Jay Charleston led UT with two hits apiece on the day. Evan Russell and Nico Mascia also chipped in offensively with two RBI each as the Big Orange raced out to a 4-0 lead after three innings of play.

Garrett Stallings was great out of the bullpen for Tennessee, tossing 4.2 innings of relief to pick up his fifth win of the year. The sophomore right hander gave up one run on three hits and retired 11 straight batters heading into the ninth inning.

UT scratched across a run without recording a hit to take a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Walks to Charleston, Justin Ammons and Lipcius loaded the bases with one out for Russell, who drove in a run with a sacrifice fly to left field.

A pair of clutch hits by Russell and Mascia helped the Vols increase their lead to 4-0 in the third. After Hickman walked Ammons and Lipcius, Russell singled to center to bring in a run. A few batter's later, Mascia brought in two more runs with a two-out bloop single to shallow left field.

UT starter Will Neely cruised through the first three innings but ran into trouble in the fourth as the Commodores scored six runs on five hits and an error in the inning to take a 6-4 lead. A two-run homer by Pat DeMarco made it 4-2 before Connor Kaiser brought in another run with a two-out RBI single. Austin Martin's double to left field with the bases loaded brought in three more runs to make it 6-4.

The Vols pulled within one thanks to a solo home run by Brodie Leftridge in the bottom of the fifth. It was the fourth homer for Leftridge this season in what likely will be the final game in Lindsey Nelson Stadium for the senior from Baltimore.

Tennessee jumped back in front with a three-run sixth inning. Brandon Chinea doubled to right field to start the inning and came in to score on a double down the line by Charleston one batter later to tie the game at six. The Vols went on to load the bases with nobody out for Lipcius, who singled to right center to plate two runs and give UT an 8-6 lead heading into the seventh.

Vanderbilt rallied to make things interesting in the top of the ninth, scoring a run on a sacrifice fly to cut the deficit to one. The Commodores had the tying run on second base with two outs, but Stallings was able to get Ethan Paul to line out to shortstop to end the game.

Notable
Stallings Stellar Out of the Pen
Sophomore pitcher Garrett Stallings had a strong outing of out the bullpen to earn his fifth win of the season. The Virginia native allowed just one run and three hits while striking out three batters. Stallings retired 12 of the first 13 batter's he faced, including 11 in a row at one point.

Battling Back
With Sunday's comeback victory, Tennessee has now won 14 games this season in which they have trailed at some point, with six of those wins coming in SEC play.

Next Up
Tennessee closes out the regular season with a crucial three-game series at Missouri starting on Thursday, May 17. The Vols and Tigers are battling for the final spot in the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala. The winner of next week's series will likely lock up a spot in the tournament.

All three games will be streamed live on SEC Network + (WatchESPN). As always, fans can also listen to the games live on Sports Radio WNML (FM 99.1 / AM 990).