Tennessee comes back to beat Samford, 7-3

Fun game.

A walk, a stolen base and a base hit had Samford off and running on Saturday afternoon. The Bulldogs took a quick 1-0 lead in the top of the 1st inning, looking to bounce back from a 5-1 loss to Tennessee on Friday afternoon.

The Volunteers had no answers for Samford starter Cameron Keshock early on. He would hold Tennessee scoreless over the first four innings.

A sloppy 5th inning plated another run for Samford. A miscommunication on a simple pop up kept the Bulldogs alive, then a pick-off attempt gone wrong gave them a 2-0 lead. Marcus Phillips tossed the ball into the outfield allowing Trey Higgins to score from 2nd.

Phillips’ day was done right there, and Tony Vitello turned to Nate Snead on the mound. Phillips went 4.2 innings, struck out eight, walked three and gave up one earned run.

With runners on the corners, Snead shut the door and got Tennessee out of the jam. He would go the rest of the way on the mound.

Finally in the bottom of the 5th, the Tennessee offense put something together. Ariel Antigua drew a walk, then freshman Jay Abernathy doubled. Antigua would later score, but Keshock worked out of trouble from there.

Dalton Bargo tied things up in the next inning. A solo blast to right center did the trick for the Volunteers as they clawed back into this one. Furman got that one right back with an RBI double, however. Tennessee answered the call in the bottom of the 7th as Abernathy scored on a wild pitch.

A wild sequence played out in the bottom of the 8th as Tennessee looked for their first lead of the day. Andrew Fischer made contact with the Samford shortstop as he made his way to third — Fischer was going to be thrown out, but interference was called. Tennessee proceed to load the bases, then Levi Clark unloaded them with a mammoth home run.

The freshman got every single ounce of that one to put Samford away. Snead finished this one off as the Volunteers were really pushed for the first time this season.

Final score: Tennessee 7, Samford 3

Tennessee takes the series win with the third game set for tomorrow afternoon.