University of Tennessee Athletics
Vols Fall to Texas Tech, 7-3
March 01, 2008 | Baseball
Box Score | Box Score (PDF)
HOUSTON ??? Texas Tech scored five runs in the first four innings Saturday, and that proved to be more than enough to hand the Tennessee baseball team a 7-3 loss on the second day of the 2008 Houston College Classic at Minute Maid Park. The Volunteers committed three costly errors and were forced to play from behind before falling to 4-2 on the year.
???We didn???t get off to a good start,??? UT head coach Todd Raleigh said. ???We just didn???t play well, and it seemed like we weren???t ready from the beginning.
???We tried to play catch-up all day. And right now, offensively, we don???t have a team that can do that. We just dug a hole too deep.???
Texas Tech (3-4) starting pitcher Nathan Karns limited UT to three runs on four hits through five full innings while picking up his first win of the season. Tennessee batters struck out a season-high nine times Saturday while being out-hit 9-6.
The Vols exhibited some sloppiness in the field in the top of the first inning, committing a pair of errors that enabled Texas Tech (3-4) to plate one unearned run and take an early lead.
And after Tennessee went down in order in its half of the first, Tech put its first three batters on base in the second. An RBI sacrifice fly by Red Raiders shortstop Chris Hall and an RBI fielder???s choice off the bat of Joey Kenworthy then extended Texas Tech???s lead to 3-0.
Tennessee took note, however, and used a walk sandwiched between a pair of basehits to load the bases with no outs in the bottom of the second???just as Tech had done in the previous frame. Karns then recorded back-to-back strikeouts before UT left fielder P.J. Polk managed an RBI base on balls to put the Vols on the scoreboard.
With a single swing in the top of the third, Texas Tech right fielder Roger Kieschnick made it a three-run game once again. The preseason All-America???s third homer of the season was a solo blast that cleared the wall in centerfield to make the score 4-1.
The Red Raiders??? lead continued to grow in the fourth, when Kenworthy delivered a two-out double that drove in Tech???s fifth run of the game. Through four full innings, Texas Tech held a 7-2 advantage in hits. Coupled with UT???s two errors to that point, it translated into a 5-1 lead for the Red Raiders.
A third Tennessee error???this time an infield throwing miscue in the top of the fifth???enabled Tech to put two more men in scoring position. Vols starting pitcher Nick Hernandez then logged his first strikeout of the game before being lifted in favor of junior right-hander Danny Wiltz.
Tennessee finally built up some steam offensively in the bottom of the fifth. After a sacrifice bunt by Andy Simunic moved shortstop Danny Lima and Polk into scoring position, third baseman Cody Brown laced a two-run basehit up the middle to trim Tech???s lead to 5-3. Lima had previously reached on a walk, while Polk had singled.
A bases-loaded, two-run single by Raiders centerfielder Taylor Ashby in the sixth restored Tech???s four-run lead, 7-3. That would end up as the final???with Texas Tech winning the first-ever meeting between the two programs.
Hernandez took the loss to fall to 0-1 on the year. The Miami, Fla., native???s final line included five runs (four earned) on eight hits with a walk and a strikeout in 4 2/3 innings of action. Wiltz worked three full innings of relief before lefty D.J. Leffler entered for 1/3 inning. Senior right-hander Zane Stone threw a perfect ninth for UT.
In addition to hitting safely in his fifth straight game, UT third baseman Cody Brown also made a pair of highlight-reel defensive plays Saturday. The team co-captain from Knoxville, Tenn., is batting a team-best .476 on the year. Simunic extended his current hitting streak to six games with a seventh-inning single Saturday.
First-year Vol Cody Grisham, a junior infielder from Booneville, Miss., made his Tennessee debut Saturday, entering the game as a defensive sub at shortstop in the top of the ninth inning.
Tennessee returns to action at Minute Maid Park Sunday when it faces Oklahoma (4-2) at 11 a.m. CT. It will be just the second all-time meeting between the two programs. Oklahoma claimed a 3-2 win over the Vols in the 1951 national championship game.
Oklahoma beat Houston 8-5 in 10 innings in Saturday???s early game.
Tennessee???s starting pitcher for Sunday???s game will be freshman left-hander Bryan Morgado (1-0, 0.00 ERA). Freshman right-hander Michael Rocha (0-0, 3.60 ERA) will take the mound for the Sooners.
