University of Tennessee Athletics
JMU walks to 10-3 win over Vols
March 05, 2008 | Baseball
Box Score | Box Score (PDF)
KNOXVILLE, Tenn.????? The Tennessee pitching staff issued a season-high 11 walks Wednesday, and the Volunteers committed four errors as the UT baseball team dropped a 10-3 contest to James Madison at Robert M. Lindsay Field at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. Tennessee fell to 4-4 with the loss.
First-year UT head coach Todd Raleigh worked as an assistant coach at JMU from 1995-98 and on Wednesday saw the Dukes (5-3) take an early lead and never look back. James Madison out-hit the Vols 11-7 on the day.
Tennessee freshman P.J. Polk collected a pair of doubles while starting in centerfield, and junior Jarred Frazier also added a pair of hits???including his first homer of the season???for UT. The Vols??? lineup struck out 10 times and left 11 runners on base. JMU left eight runners stranded while striking out just five times.
???We just didn???t pitch today,??? Raleigh said. ???It is (frustrating), but I???m not going to complain too much because we have been pitching pretty well.
???It???s just the same old thing; (we get) six or seven hits and leave about 10 guys on base. We???ve left more runners on base than our opponent in almost every game this year.???
The Dukes jumped out of the gates with four runs on two hits and a pair of walks in the top of the first inning. Brett Sellers and McKinnon Langston each delivered RBI groundouts, and Steven Caseres clubbed a two-run homer over the wall in right field. James Madison???s four-run first would eventually prove to be all it needed to give pitcher Turner Phelps his second win of the year.
Tennessee answered in the bottom of the first inning, as second baseman Andy Simunic drew a leadoff walk and was quickly driven in by a Polk double deep in the left-center gap. Freshman right fielder Josh Liles sent a two-run basehit through the right side of the Dukes infield later in the frame to cut JMU???s lead in half, 4-2.
After a pair of scoreless innings, JMU used a triple, a walk and a hit batsman to load the bases with one out in the fourth. Tennessee reliever Zane Stone induced a flyball out before Joe Lake managed a two-run single that put the Dukes up 6-2. Lake attempted to advance to second base on the throw home from Liles, but UT catcher Blake Forsythe threw to shortstop Cody Grisham in time to putout Lake at second for the final out of the frame.
Sellers made it a five-run game when he led off the top of the fifth with a solo home run???his second of the season. Three of the next four Dukes drew walks, with Mike Fabiaschi???s bases-loaded free pass going down as an RBI that pushed JMU???s lead to 8-2. Fabiaschi???s walk was his second of the day and the ninth issued by the UT pitching staff in the game.
Dukes right fielder Matt Browning singled to lead off the seventh inning, and he later scored from second base when Vols reliever Danny Wiltz???s pickoff attempt eluded Simunic and ended up in right-center. It was Tennessee???s third error of the afternoon and increased the Vols??? deficit to seven runs.
Sellers added an RBI double for JMU in the eighth to close out JMU???s scoring.
Frazier made his first start of the season Wednesday and clubbed a mammoth solo homer out of the park deep in left-center in the bottom of the eighth. The Shelbyville, Tenn., native???s third career home run brought the final score to 10-3.
Junior left-hander Joey Rosas was touched for four runs through 2 1/3 innings and took the loss to fall to 1-1 on the year. Six UT relievers???including Stone, D.J. Leffler, Bryan Powell, Wiltz, Aaron Everett and Jeff Lockwood???combined to allow six runs on eight hits through 6 2/3 innings.
Grisham made his first start as a Vol Wednesday, and the shortstop???s first plate appearance of the day resulted in his first hit???a line-drive single to left field. Powell saw his first action of the season, allowing one hit and inducing a double-play ball in one full inning on the mound.
Tennessee now leads the all-time series with James Madison 2-1, dating to 2003.
Wednesday???s game marked the first contest of a nine-game homestand for the Vols. They welcome defending Mid-American Conference champion Eastern Michigan to Knoxville for a three-game series this weekend. Game times are set for 3 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. Sunday.
