University of Tennessee
Kentucky
Vols Drop Thursday Night Duel with UK, 5-0
April 16, 2015 | Baseball
LEXINGTON, Ky. -- In the series opener on Thursday night, Tennessee fell behind early to Kentucky and was unable to recover, dropping a 5-0 shutout decision at Cliff Hagan Stadium.
With the loss, the Volunteers slip to 15-18 on the season and 5-11 in SEC competition, while Kentucky is now 20-16 and 6-9 in conference play.
In his second start of the year, junior lefty Andy Cox (1-2) again delivered a quality start for the Vols, tossing a season-high 7.0 innings. Cox held the Wildcats to just one run on three hits entering the fifth, but finished the game allowing five runs on eight hits with six strikeouts for the loss. Along with a solid start on the mound, Cox put forth a gritty defensive effort, making numerous stops and snags on balls hit back up the middle by Kentucky.
"I thought Andy really battled for us," Head Coach Dave Serrano said. "This game can be unfair sometimes. When you look at the scoreboard, four of their five runs were on two outs and when you look at our situations, we had some opportunities with two outs. They got the hits and we didn't and that's been the whole difference. It's finding a way to do something when it really matters in a hard situation, and you can't blame Andy for that. It was unfortunate that he didn't get much run support."
Tennessee's offense produced five hits against the Wildcats in the series opener, led by right fielder Chris Hall (2-for-3) and first baseman Andrew Lee (1-for-4, 2B), who knocked his fourth double of the year in the second inning.
In the first inning, Kentucky edged ahead to take a 1-0 lead, due to a leadoff single from Wildcats' Kyle Barrett who knocked a base hit to center field on the very first pitch delivered from Cox. Barrett then came around to score on a RBI-single from Kentucky cleanup hitter JaVon Shelby.
Tennessee and Cox held the Cats scoreless over the next four frames before the Vols witnessed another bad-luck fifth inning, as Kentucky took advantage of a double and a throwing error by Vols shortstop A.J. Simcox to plate two runs and make it a 3-0 ballgame.
The Wildcats came back to score two runs in the seventh on back-to-back RBI-hits from leadoff man Barrett and first baseman Evan White, pushing their lead to 5-0 over the Orange and White.
Freshman righthander Jacob Westphal entered the game in the eighth in relief of Cox. Another tough-break inning for UT saw Kentucky load the bases with no outs, but Westphal and the Vols defense stopped the rally on a play at home and a double play up the middle to get out of the jam.
Tennessee sent pinch hitters Jordan Rodgers and Jeff Moberg to the plate in the ninth, following by freshman catcher Benito Santiago, but Kentucky's staff recorded three strikeouts in the final frame to secure the win.
"We just have to get a different mentality for when things are getting tough," Serrano said. "That's what continues to hamper this team and it's bothering me. We have everything right in front of us and we're not playing with a sense of urgency. I try to prepare them every day for how big each series is, how big each game is, and they're just not playing or responding to that how. I don't want to take anything away from [Kentucky pitcher Zack] Brown because he pitched good. But to throw a shutout tonight, I didn't see that happening with the kind of hitters we run up there.
"We'd like to get some sweeps but the sweep has been taken away from us. We'll have to fight tomorrow to win tomorrow and still get a chance to win the series, which will be big."
Tennessee continues the weekend series at Kentucky on Friday, April 17 at 6:30 p.m. ET, sending senior righthander Bret Marks to the hill with game action available for viewing via SEC Network+ stream.
For the most up-to-date information about the Tennessee baseball program, visit UTSports.com/baseball and follow @Vol_Baseball on Twitter.
