University of Tennessee Athletics
Burke Homers Twice As Vols Sweep Florida
March 11, 2001 | Baseball
GAINESVILLE (Mar. 11) - Chris Burke celebrated his 21st birthday in a big way as he went 4-for-5 with two home runs and three RBI in leading the No. 23 Tennessee Volunteers to an 8-2 victory and three-game series sweep of the Florida Gators at McKethan Stadium.
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| Tennessee coach Rod Delmonico led the Vols to a three-game sweep at Florida to open the 2001 SEC campaign. |
Matt Sternberg and Jeff Christensen also hit solo home runs as Tennessee posted its sixth consecutive win to improve to 16-2 overall and 3-0 in the Southeastern Conference. Florida fell to 9-10 and 0-3 in the league.
Burke's lead off home run jump-started the Vols as they tallied three runs in the top of the first. Dan Wilson had a run scoring double and later scored on a base hit by Kris Bennett. For Burke, it was his second lead off home run of the season, the other came against The Citadel. The last time a Vol hit two home runs in a game was last season when Christensen hit two at Hawaii-Hilo.
Bennett also added three hits as Tennessee pounded out 15 hits.
The Vols added single runs in the third, fourth innings and two in the sixth in building a 7-0 lead. Burke drove in his second run of the game in the fourth while he and Sternberg each slugged home runs in the sixth.
Brandon Crowe (3-0), who picked up a save against the Gators Friday night, earned the win in his second start of the season. Crowe shut out Florida through a career-high eight innings, scattering eight hits.
Christensen led off the ninth with his second home run of the season and 23rd of his career which put him ninth on Tennessee's all-time home run list.
Robbie Wells (1-1) was tagged with the loss as he lasted just 1 2/3 innings.
Florida broke up the shut out bid with two runs in the ninth on singles by Kevin Estrada and Mark Kiger.
The Vols open a seven-game homestand, Tuesday against Eastern Kentucky at 3 p.m. ET. They play host to Western Carolina Wednesday at 3 p.m. before playing the South Carolina Gamecocks, Mar. 16-18.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | ||
| TENNESSEE | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 15 | 0 | |
| Florida | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 1 |
Tennessee - Crowe, Filsinger (9), Samuels (9) and Bibee.
Florida - Wells, Coleman (2), Brice (6), Ramsey (8) and Rose.
W-Crowe (3-0). L-Wells (1-1).
HR-UT-Burke 2 (6), Sternberg (1), Christensen (2).
T-2:51. Att-1470.
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