BATON ROUGE, La. – No. 9/10 Tennessee belted three homers but came up short in game two of its series with No. 1/1 LSU, falling 6-4 on Friday night at Alex Box Stadium.
The Big Orange struck first, courtesy of a home run by Maui Ahuna to lead off the game. The solo blast ricocheted off the batter’s eye in straightaway center field and was the fifth long ball of the year for the junior shortstop.
UT’s lead was short-lived, however, as the Tigers responded with three runs in the bottom of the first to jump in front.
Chase Burns got the start on the mound and finished the night with seven strikeouts but was tagged for five runs on seven hits in just 3.1 innings of work.
The Vols got another impressive long relief outing from its bullpen to stay within striking distance as Andrew Lindsey scattered five hits and allowed just one run in 4.2 innings. The junior right hander finished with three strikeouts in what was the longest outing of his UT tenure thus far.
Dylan Dreiling and Hunter Ensley combined for four of Tennessee’s eight hits in the contest, as each went 2-for-4 with a run scored. Ensley also homered in the second inning to cut the deficit to one, his second round tripper of the year.
Zane Denton provided the only other runs for UT with a two-run homer to right-center field that briefly put the Vols ahead, 4-3, in the top of the fourth inning. The senior is now tied for the team lead in RBIs with 28 and ranks third on the squad with six long balls.
After falling behind, LSU once again answered back immediately with two runs in the home half of the fourth as Brady Neal and Gavin Dugas hit back-to-back solo homers to put the Tigers back in front.
A sacrifice fly from Tommy White in the sixth provided an extra insurance run for LSU (24-3, 6-2 SEC) and wrapped up the scoring for both teams on the night. Tre’ Morgan led the Tigers with three hits, including a pair of doubles, while Dugas and Brayden Jobert also had multi-hit outings.
Ty Floyd improved to 5-0 on the year despite not having his best outing, allowing four runs on six hits in five innings. Chase Shores and Griffin Herring tossed the final four innings, combining for six strikeouts and just two hits allowed.
For the second night in a row, UT brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning, but Herring struck out pinch hitter Griffin Merritt to end the game and secure his first save of the year.
UP NEXT: Tennessee (20-8, 3-5 SEC) will look to salvage a game in Saturday’s series finale, which is slated to begin at 2 p.m. ET. Fans can watch the game live on SEC Network+ through the ESPN app or listen live on the Vol Network (FM 99.1 / AM 990).
-UT Athletics
