The Tennessee Volunteers kicked off their week in Hoover with a win over the South Carolina Gamecocks tonight, winning 11-6. The Volunteers, still down starter Landon Mack, turned to Cam Appenzeller on the mound to get the week rolling. The freshman lefty delivered, and got plenty run support.
Tennessee strung together a few first-inning hits to take a 2-0 lead, but South Carolina got to Appenzeller quickly. It took three innings, but the Gamecocks put two on and Patrick Evans came through. It was
a two-run triple for Evans to tie the game, then a squeeze play added another to give South Carolina an early lead.
South Carolina’s 3-2 lead was about as much fun as the Gamecocks would have in Hoover.
Tennessee exploded in the bottom half of the inning for six runs, re-taking the lead and pushing it out to 8-3. Trent Grindlinger pushed Blake Grimmer across to start, and the hit parade was on. Manny Marin was next, then Nate Eisfelder drove in two more, filling in for the injured Reese Chapman. Garrett Wright capped the inning with another two-run hit.
Appenzeller suddenly had a five-run lead to work with. He would get out of a bases-load jam in the top of the fifth to hold the Tennessee lead at 9-3. That would be the end of Appenzeller’s night.
Josh Elander turned to the struggling Brayden Krenzel in a potential confidence boosting spot. Roughed up in his last two SEC outings — that trend continued. Patrick Evans hit a solo shot, then things got a little more interesting when Will Craddock smacked a two-run shot to left. Krenzel was done after that, with lefty Will Haas coming on to get out of the seventh inning.
Haas would find no issues in the eighth inning, either. Garrett Wright and Henry Ford added a little insurance with solo shots to open the bottom of the eighth, pushing Tennessee’s lead to 11-6.
Haas would go ahead and close things down, capping off an 11-6 win for Tennessee.
Up next for Tennessee
The Volunteers will move on to face the seven-seed Arkansas Razorbacks on Wednesday night. First pitch is (loosely) scheduled for 5:30 p.m. ET on SEC Network.
