Tennessee takes opener over Hogs 10-7

FAYETTEVILLE — No. 17 Tennessee defeated No. 5 Arkansas 10-7 on Thursday night to take the series opener at Baum-Walker Stadium.

Arkansas (41-12, 18-10) only led once, 2-1, in the bottom of the second. Tennessee (41-13, 16-12) took a 4-2 lead in the top of the fourth and never trailed again. Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn used six pitchers in the game with starter Zack Root (6-4) taking the loss on a night when he simply didn’t have his stuff. Root only pitched 3.2 innings, allowing seven hits, four runs, walking two and striking out four. He threw 68 pitches.

“Well, he didn’t have his good stuff really from the get go,” Van Horn said. “He didn’t have a breaking ball and wasn’t locating his fastball like he normally does, compared to what we’ve seen the last couple of weeks. But yeah, in that inning, a lot of just behind in the count — 2-0, 3-1. Gave up a couple of big hits and just fought it out there. They did a good job and laid off pitches and you just can’t pitch like that. You can’t pitch behind in the count against a good hitting team and that’s what happened.”

The Razorbacks stranded 12 runners which hurt, but the Vols left 11 on as well. The Razorbacks loaded the bases in the seventh but was unable to push a run across. The Hogs did plate three runs in the bottom of the eighth though to pull to within 7-6. Reese Robinett and Justin Thomas Jr. led off the inning with singles. Wehiwa Aloy followed with a one-out single that got both Robinett and Thomas across the plate. Logan Maxwell singled to get Wehiwa Aloy to third. Kuhio Aloy then plated his brother with an RBI single.

“Oh yeah, we just talked about it,” Van Horn said. “I mean, I know we left 12 on for the game, but it was early in the game, that’s when we had to score some runs. We left a lot of runners out there. We put together some innings, whether it was hits or a base on balls, I think we got hit by pitch, leadoff guy’s on, second base no outs, whatever the case may be, we just didn’t get them in. Give him credit for wiggling out of some jams. That probably was the difference in the game. Early we should have added on to that 2-1 lead. They did a nice job getting that relay throw at the plate to keep it from being 3-1 with Aloy coming up, but that’s the way the game works sometimes.”

But just down one run, Van Horn opted to go to Hunter Dietz out of the bullpen which proved to be a disaster. Reese Chapman singled to start the top of the ninth against Dietz. Then Cannon Peebles sent a shot over the fence in right field for two runs. Levi Clark singled and eventually scored on a throwing error by Maxwell in right field fielding a Gavin Kilen single. Van Horn was asked why he went to Dietz after getting it to just one run.

“Yeah, he was loose,” Van Horn said. “He was going to go in. Then we got it to one. He threw really good the other day. Today was 92-93. The other night, 95-97. So I don’t know. Not the same guy.”

The Hogs plated Robinett in the bottom of the ninth to set the final score. Robinett singled, then took second and scored on a single by Thomas.

The Vols got on the scoreboard first with a solo home run by Dalton Bargo off of Root. The Hogs answered that in the bottom of the second. Ryder Helfrick and Brent Iredale both singled with one out. Robinett walked and Thomas struck out. But, with two outs, Davalan doubled to get both Helfrick and Iredale home for a 2-1 lead.

Trailing 4-2 in bottom of the fifth, the Razorbacks got a one-out single by Maxwell. Kuhio Aloy doubled to plate Maxwell to pull within 4-3.

The game got out of control for the Hogs in the top of the seventh when Bargo hit a two-run home run and then Dean Curley followed with a solo shot for back-to-back home runs. The Vols held a 7-3 lead.

In addition to Root and Dietz, Arkansas used Gabe Gaeckle, Dylan Carter, Ben Bybee and Christian Foutch. They combined to allow 10 runs, 15 hits, struck out 11 and walked seven.

Tennessee used five pitchers with AJ Russell (1-1) getting the win. He was the third Vol to take the mound. He pitched two innings. He allowed two hits, no runs, walked a pair and fanned three. Marcus Phillips and Dylan Loy pitched prior to Russell then Tanner Franklin and Nate Snead followed. They combined to allow seven runs, 15 hits, fanned eight and walked five. Phillips started and worked 4.1 innings. He allowed seven hits, three runs, walked a trio and fanned three Hogs. Tony Vitello talked about his pitching staff.

“The pitching group as a whole was a team effort because D Loy and T-Frank were the least amount as far as pitch count, but those were two massive outs,” Vitello said. “Then Nate Snead grinded out what are the most difficult outs at the end of the game. But the table was set. Marcus was asked to throw on kind of short notice there because of some stuff with Liam. Get him rested up and of course AJ behind him has still been trying to find his way where he’s in a rhythm because he’s been coming off injury. So both guys battled adversity before we even got here. And then in the stadium with the crowd. And of course, the great lineup. One of the…  I don’t know statistically, but probably you can argue one of the better, if not best lineup in the country.  So big time performance by all those guys.”

The two teams will play Game 2 of the series on Friday night at 6:30. That game can be streamed on the SEC Network+.