Join hundreds of other Tennessee fans in our game thread where you can follow along for live play-by-play updates and commentary from Tennessee's trip to Houston for the Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic.
No. 17 Tennessee (8-0) begins the weekend against No. 1 Texas (9-0)
First pitch: 9:35 p.m. ET
Watch: MLB Network, MLB App, Houston Astros' social media feed
Listen: Click here
Live Stats: Click here
Starting Lineup:
Four Quick Takes
Here’s four quick takeaways from Tennessee’s loss to No. 1 Texas, its first of the season:
Rounding 1st — Tough sixth and seventh inning
Night one of this weekend’s trip to Houston unravelled in the sixth and seventh inning. The Longhorns scored three runs in each of the frames to run away with the game and spoil Chase Burns’ start.
Tony Vitello decided to pull Burns after five strong innings. Senior righty Camden Sewell relieved Burns and struggled from the jump.
Sewell gave up a leadoff double, an RBI double and then walked a Longhorn to work the Vols into a jam. Then, Vols second baseman Jorel Ortega booted a ground ball that would have been a double play to get out of the inning. Texas scored on the play instead and then hit an RBI single to make it 4-1.
Tennessee got a run back in the top of the seventh on an RBI double from Cortland Lawson, but then gave up three more runs in the bottom half of the inning to make it 7-2. Texas never surrendered its five-run lead after that.
Rounding 2nd — Chase Burns shines
True freshman Chase Burns shined inside of Minute Maid Park despite the game getting away from the Vols.
The righty allowed just one run and struck out 10 Longhorns in just his third career start. He walked one batter, gave up just two hits and struck out seven hitters in a row at one point.
Rounding 3rd — Situational baseball and bad luck
Tennessee struggled with situational baseball on Friday. In addition to poor baserunning and a critical error, the Vols were 3-for-15 with runners on base, 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and 0-for-1 with the bases loaded, as well as runners on third with less than two outs.
The Vols also hit into some bad luck against the Longhorns. On several instances, they hit the ball extremely well, just right at somebody. Particularly Jordan Beck and Trey Lipscomb.
Headed for Home — Facing Adversity
Several Vols stated earlier in the week that the one thing they wanted to learn about their team this weekend is how they handled adversity. Well, it didn’t take long for adversity to hit.
Things didn’t go the way of the Vols on Friday. Now they’ll have to bounce back against a tough Baylor team that beat No. 23 UCLA 2-1 to kick off the tournament.
Tonight's game began an hour and a half after it was supposed to because the game before — LSU and Oklahoma — lasted 11 innings.
Key Plays:
T-1st: Tennessee 0, Texas 0
Jordan Beck and Drew Gilbert hit back-to-back singles with two outs, but on Gilbert's, Beck went from first to third and Texas' throw got past the third baseman. That's when Beck tried to take home, but was thrown out by a good bit to end the inning.
Tennessee should have had runners on second and third with two outs for hot-hitting Trey Lipscomb.
B-2nd: Tennessee 0, Texas 0
Chase Burns gave up his first hit in the second inning with two outs, a bloop single into left field. Burns then came back with a strikeout to get out of the inning. All three outs in the inning were courtesy of the strikeout.
T-3rd: Tennessee 0, Texas 0
Evan Russell hits a single through the left side to start the inning, and despite advancing to second on a ground ball, the Vols were unable to produce anything out of it.
B-3rd: Tennessee 0, Texas 0
Chase Burns ran into some trouble in the third. He gave up a leadoff walk and although he bounced back with consecutive strikeouts, he plunked a batter with two outs. With runners on first and second, however, against Texas' best hitter — Ivan Melendez — with two outs, he struck him out to get out of the jam.
It was the second consecutive inning where Burns recorded all three outs by strikeouts.
T-4th: Tennessee 0, Texas 0
Drew Gilbert drew a one-out walk, but after Trey Lipscomb flew out to center, Gilbert was caught stealing to end the inning.
T-5th: Tennessee 1 (+1), Texas 0
Evan Russell belted a solo homer into the seats in left to put the Vols on the board first and give them a 1-0 lead.
B-5th: Tennessee 1, Texas 1 (+1)
Texas got the run right back as shortstop Trey Faltine hit a solo home run to left to tie the game at one.
B-6th: Tennessee 1, Texas 4 (+3)
Texas struck for three runs in the bottom of the sixth after Tony Vitello pulled Chase Burns for Camden Sewell. The Longhorns doubled in a run, scored on an error that would have got Tennessee out of the inning and hit an RBI single.
Lefty Will Mabrey was able to come and get a pair of outs to get the Vols out of the jam and prevent further damage.
T-7th: Tennessee 2 (+1), Texas 4
Tennessee cut it to a two-run game on a Cortland Lawson RBI double. With runners on second and third with one out, Seth Stephenson popped up to the catcher and Luc Lipcius struck out to strand the runners.
B-7th: Tennessee 2, Texas 7 (+3)
Texas adds three in the seventh on an RBI double, a sac fly to center and an RBI single.
Final Box Score
Post Game Interview
This Week's Schedule
Tuesday, February 22
Midweek game – ETSU (1) vs. No. 17 Tennessee (4)
Friday, March 4 — Shriners Childrens
Game 1 – No. 17 Tennessee (2) vs. No. 1 Texas (7)
Saturday, March 5 — Shriners Childrens
Game 2 – Baylor vs. No. 17 Tennessee -- 4 p.m. ET
Sunday, March 6 — Shriners Childrens
Game 3 – No. 17 Tennessee vs. Oklahoma -- 12 p.m. ET
