University of Tennessee
Florida International
#25 Baseball Drops Finale At FIU, 3-0
February 15, 2015 | Baseball
MIAMI, Fla. -- #25 Tennessee dropped the rubber game of its opening-season series at Florida International, losing 3-0, on Sunday.
With the loss, the Volunteers even their all-time record against Florida International at 5-5.
"My message to this team was the same, whether we went 3-0 and 2-1 in the series," Head Coach Dave Serrano said. "This weekend doesn't define what we are as a team. I thought we were challenged and there is a lot of people back home that might wonder, 'Who is FIU?'. Well, marks my words, FIU is going to be there at the end. But no matter what happened this weekend, we got to play baseball. Now we can go back and start working on some things that didn't come out in fall baseball."
The Vols (1-2) recorded four hits, including doubles off the bats on Nick Senzel and Nathaniel Maggio. Senzel went 2-for-4 in the game.
The Vols limited FIU (2-1) to five hits on the afternoon as Kyle Serrano, Andy Cox and Andrew Lee saw mound action for Tennessee.
"My plan going is was, it was Sunday and we hadn't used either one of those guys," Serrano said of Cox and Lee. "They're two of our better guys and I knew I was going to have a very short leash with Kyle [Serrano]. The score was only 2-0 and Kyle had only given up two hits but we had walked some guys and that's why we went to Andy [Cox] early, to keep the game close. He did that. He got out of a big jam and then Andrew Lee shut it down when he came in."
Down 3-0 in the ninth, the Vols had a chance to rally as Senzel and Vincent Jackson singled to open the inning. But FIU's closer Danny Dicopo retired the next three batters and escaped without allowing a run to secure the series win for the Panthers.
Christopher Mourelle picked up the win in for FIU while Kyle Serrano suffered the loss as he threw 3.1 innings, allowing just two hits.
FIU scored single runs in the second and fourth to take a 2-0 lead. J.C. Escarra doubled home a run in the second and Brandon Cody scored on a bases loaded walk in the fourth.
Tennessee had a rally which was thwarted in the top of the sixth. The Vols loaded the bases with two outs, but Maggio flied out to left field.
The Panthers added a run on a sacrifice fly in the seventh.
"We didn't have the results that we wanted but I was happy with the way we handled ourselves this weekend," Serrano added. "Obviously, we set out to win each and every game. That's our goal and that's what our mission is this year. We just got beat today and that's what baseball does to you. We got beat by a team that did more things than we did and they didn't give us many free passes. We can now start tightening up some things that we need to do to be the team that we want to be.""
The Volunteers return home to Rocky Top for their Opening Week at Lindsey Nelson Stadium, beginning Wednesday, Feb. 18 against Tennessee Tech. First pitch is set for 4 p.m., and the game will air on SEC Network+. Tennessee also faces first-time opponent Rutgers University in a four-game weekend series (Feb. 20-22). Stay tuned for UTSports.com for the latest on the Vols.
