University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
Ole Miss
Vol Baseball Tops Ole Miss Rebels, 6-3
April 04, 2015 | Baseball
OXFORD, Miss. -- The Tennessee Volunteers used timely hits, solid defense and a hard-nosed outing from starting righthander Bret Marks to come out on top, 6-3, over the Ole Miss Rebels in Saturday night's contest at Oxford-University Stadium.
With the win, the Volunteers are now 13-14 on the season and 3-8 in SEC competition, while Ole Miss (16-15) moves to 5-6 in conference play.
"I really felt [the team's] momentum," Head Coach Dave Serrano said. "We carried the energy over from last night and we have to carry that over into tomorrow. This is a good win overall. We made some spectacular plays and a lot of good things happened today. I'm proud of our guys. I'm proud of how they put last night behind them, showed up today and played good baseball and now we have another challenge tomorrow."
Tennessee's bats got to work in the first, as juniors A.J. Simcox and Christin Stewart knocked back-to-back base hits. With runners on the corners, first baseman Andrew Lee drove in Simcox for the first run of the game, blasting a sacrifice fly ball to the warning track in left field to give UT a 1-0 lead.
In the third, the Vols pushed another run across with the help of Stewart, who launched an RBI-triple off of the right-center field wall to again bring Simcox home. Tennessee kept swinging away against Ole Miss in the fourth, as third baseman Jared Pruett reached base and took advantage of two throwing errors by the Rebels to score his first career run as a Volunteer and make it a 3-0 ballgame.
Designated hitter Nathaniel Maggio gave the Vols another insurance run in the fifth, as he crushed a solo home run over the right field wall. The homer marks Maggio's third of the season and furthered UT's lead to 4-1.
Back-to-back walks issued to Senzel and Simcox in the sixth again put the Vols in position to score as Lee came to the plate in the inning. On a ground ball to third, Lee and Ole Miss first baseman Sikes Orvis collided due to a wild throw inside the base path. While Lee was ruled safe at the bag, the play allowed Senzel and Simcox each the opportunity to score and push the Vols' lead to 6-1.
"Hitting is contagious and I've talked about that a lot this year," Serrano said. "I think we're starting to see some things and I thought we took some really go at-bats. We have played really good baseball for two nights in a row. Obviously, we didn't pitch well [Friday] night but so far, it's been a good week."
Right-handed senior Bret Marks drew his first Saturday start of the year and went 5.1 innings, allowing just two runs on five hits while striking out seven Ole Miss batters for the win. Lefty Andy Cox relieved Marks in the sixth and threw the remaining 3.2 innings to hold Tennessee's lead through the finish.
On Sunday afternoon, Tennessee sends lefthander Drake Owenby (1-3) to the mound for the series rubber match against Ole Miss, with first pitch slated for 2:30 p.m. ET on SEC Network+ stream.
For the most up-to-date information on Tennessee baseball, visit UTSports.com/Baseball and follow @Vol_Baseball on Twitter.
