Chinea's Late Homer Lifts Vols to Series Win Over No. 13 Kentucky

Sunday, May 6

Knoxville

1 P.M. ET

University of Tennessee

27-23, 10-14

#13 Kentucky

30-17, 11-13

Kentucky

Tennessee

Chinea's Late Homer Lifts Vols to Series Win Over No. 13 Kentucky

May 06, 2018 | Baseball

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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – A no-doubt two-run homer by sophomore third baseman Brandon Chinea propelled Tennessee to a huge 5-3 victory and a series win over No. 13 Kentucky in Sunday's rubber game at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

Chinea's home run was the first of his career and came just after the Wildcats had scored two runs in the top of the inning to tie the game at three. The Miami, Fla., native hammered a 1-1 pitch from UK starter Justin Lewis over the wall in left field to give the Vols the lead for good and send the 2,324 fans at Lindsey Nelson Stadium into a frenzy.

Fellow sophomore Garrett Stallings entered the game in relief with one out in the eighth and threw the final 1.2 innings to earn his first-career save, inducing a pair of well-timed double plays along the way.

Despite being sick last night and earlier today, junior Will Neely got the start and was his normal self, holding the Wildcats to just one run on two hits in five strong innings of work. Freshman Garrett Crochet got the win and improved to 5-5 on the year after giving up just one hit and two unearned runs in 2.1 innings of relief.

With Sunday's win, Tennessee improved to 8-4 at home in Southeastern Conference play this season and secured a winning record at home in league play for the first time since 2005 when the Vols went 8-4 at home in SEC play and went on to make the College World Series.

Seven different UT players recorded a hit and four scored runs, led by Nico Mascia who scored twice and had a hit. Andre Lipcius also had another good day, reaching base three times while driving in a run with an RBI single in the third.

Neely stranded the bases loaded in the first inning and was able to escape another big jam in the top of the third after allowing the first two batters to reach base. The Knoxville native retired the three, four and five batters in the Wildcats order to end the inning and strand runners on second and third.

The Vols carried that momentum into the bottom of the third, jumping on Lewis for three runs in the inning. Mascia scored the game's first run, coming home on a wild pitch after an error by the Wildcats loaded the bases with just one out. Pete Derkay followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0 and Lipcius capped the scoring in the inning with a two-out RBI single.

Kentucky broke up Neely's shutout bid in the fifth, scoring on a sacrifice fly by Kole Cottam to cut the UT lead to 3-1. Neely was able to limit the damage to just that one run despite having to deal with runners on the corners with nobody out earlier in the inning.

The Wildcats took advantage of a costly error by the Vols to score a pair of runs in the seventh. With a runner on first, Cottam singled to center field and advanced all the way to third after the ball got by Brodie Leftridge, allowing Troy Squires to score and cut the deficit to one. Two batters later, Luke Becker executed a squeeze bunt to perfection to score the runner from third and tie the game at three.

The Big Orange didn't waste any time retaking the lead, going ahead 5-3 on Chinea's two-run blast in the bottom of the seventh. Mascia was hit by a pitch with two outs to set the stage for Chinea's first-career home run.

Stallings allowed just one hit and induced two double plays over the final 1.2 innings to shut the door on the Wildcats and give Tennessee its first season with three series wins in conference play since 2015.

Notable
Chinea the Hero
Sophomore Brandon Chinea hadn't hit a home run since his senior year of high school, so he made his first collegiate homer count by hitting a two-run shot over the left-field wall to break a 3-3 tie in the bottom of the seventh. Chinea's blast was even more important considering it looked as if Kentucky had taken the momentum after tying the game in the previous half inning.

Turning Things Around
With Sunday's win the Vols were able to accomplish some team feats that have not been done in quite some time. The series win was the third in conference play for the Vols this season, marking the first time that has been done since 2015 when the Big Orange defeated Ole Miss, South Carolina and Mississippi State in the same year.

UT also recorded its first series win over Kentucky since 2014 and has now won two series over ranked opponents this season after also taking two of three games from No. 14 Texas A&M two weeks ago. The last time the Vols had two or more series win over ranked teams was in 2014 when they won series over No. 24 Arizona State, No. 4 Vanderbilt and No. 25 Kentucky.

Lastly, Tennessee assured itself a winning record at home in SEC play for the first time since 2005 after improving to 8-4 in league games at Lindsey Nelson Stadium this season with Sunday's 5-3 victory.

Next Up
Tennessee will wrap up the home portion of its schedule next weekend when in-state rival Vanderbilt comes to town for another important SEC series. Fans can catch the first two games of the series live on SEC Network+ (WatchESPN) or listen live on Sports Radio WNML (FM 99.1 / AM 990).