University of Tennessee
Georgia State
Hopkins, Vols Roll Past Georgia State, 9-2
March 04, 2000 | Baseball
Brandon Hopkins goes 3-for-4 to lead Tennessee
KNOXVILLE (March 4) -Brandon Hopkins went 3-for-4 to lead Tennessee to a 9-2 win and a two-game series lead over Georgia State on Saturday.
The Vols (15-4) played errorless in the field while racking up 10 hits at the plate to hand Georgia State their second consecutive loss which is the longest losing streak by the Panthers this season. Georgia State entered the weekend on the heels of an eight-game winning streak.
Tennessee jumped out to an early lead after Jeff Christensen connected on a solo home run to give the Vols a 1-0 lead in the second. Christensen's center field slap was his third home run of the season. Christensen would add a RBI double to his total in the top of the fourth to send Justin Parker home and give UT a 3-0 lead. Christensen finished the day by going 2-4 at the plate with 2 RBI.
Brandon Hopkins turned in another stellar performance today as the sophomore center fielder hit a single, double, triple. In the series, Hopkins has gone 5-6 at the plate for an average of .833. Hopkins hit a RBI triple in the fourth inning to increase the UT lead while giving him his first triple of the season.
Junior Ryan Case connected on his first home run of the season after slapping a two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh to give the Vols an 8-2 lead. Georgia State got their only two runs of the game in the seventh when Kyle Breitbach doubled to score pinch hitter Joel Dobbs and Paul Schlosser. The Panthers punched out the two runs on three hits.
Pitcher Jamie Bennett was impressive from the mound as he struckout seven batters while giving up six hits in eight innings of work. With the win, Bennett moves his season record to 3-1 while compiling an ERA of 2.43. With the loss, Georgia State drops to 10-4 on the season and pitcher Ryan Patrylo goes to 2-1 on the year.
Tennessee will wrap up the three-game series against Georgia State with a 2 p.m. match-up on Sunday at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
