Tennessee Baseball Wins Fight With ETSU

KNOXVILLE, Tenn.– The No. 17 Tennessee BaseVols topped in-state rival ETSU 4-1 in Lindsey-Nelson Stadium on Tuesday night.

After crushing Iona for three consecutive days in a weekend series, the Vols got a much-needed test before hitting the road for a tough stretch of games this weekend in Houston.

Trey Lipscomb was one of Tennessee's hottest bats yet again, accounting for Tennessee's lone home-run. Lipscomb's bomb brought Drew Gilbert home with him to count for half of the Vols' runs on the night.

Tennessee's other two runs came from a Jared Dickey walk with the bases loaded to score Jordan Beck, and Drew Gilbert doubled in the bottom of the seventh to score Luc Lipcius.

The Vols' got six hits against ETSU, a season-low. The Vols also scored a season-low in runs, but season-lows on Tuesday night might've been just what Tennessee needed.

"I was pleased with the fact we were in a dogfight," head coach Tony Vitello said. "We were robbed of that last Tuesday. Bottom line is, our team got better as a group today because we were in a close game and able to play nine innings."

'Getting better as a group' is the best takeaway for the Vols from Tuesday night with No. 1 Texas on the docket for Friday.

Other Vols responsible for Tennessee hits in addition to Gilbert and Lipscomb were Jared Dickey, Jordan Beck, Seth Stephenson and Jorel Ortega.

Dickey got the starting nod at left field for Tennessee, earning his second start in his career after starting at catcher on Sunday. The redshirt freshman recorded a double in the bottom of the fifth to bring his hit total up to nine on the season. With the walked RBI, Dickey now has five RBIs on 13 at bats this season.

Jorel Ortega also impressed with a triple in the bottom of the second but was not able to score. Many hits were trending towards being gone on Tuesday night, but with the wind blowing towards the plate, a lot of balls died at the wall and resulted in either fly outs or, in the case with Ortega in the bottom of the second, a triple. Ortega's hit against the Buccaneers marked his triple of the season and his ninth overall on the season. The redshirt sophomore had gotten on base in 15 of his 21 at bats this season.

On the mound, the Vols started sophomore LHP Zander Sechrist for the second time this season, and Sechrist pitched 4.2 innings and threw six strikeouts, one away from tying his career-high he pitched against UNC Asheville in his first career start last week.

"The fact that Zander took control of the game is why I left him out there longer. The script did not go our way, per say. But Zander has earned the fourths starter role, Redmond is that guy to close it for us and Camden has earned the first out of the bullpen spot."

Camden Sewell was lights out in relief for Sechrist, as the Vols' senior threw a career-high seven strikeouts against the Buccaneers. Sewell pitched just over three innings and gave up three hits and no runs. Sewell's seven strikeouts came against 12 total batters faced, and the Cleveland, Tennessee, native threw 34 total strikes on 52 pitches.

Redmond Walsh closed out the game for the Vols, pitching a 1-2-3 inning to put away ETSU.

In a game that was scoreless for three-and-a-half innings, the Vols improved to an 8-0 record and further readied themselves for a tough test against Texas on Friday.

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