Tennessee baseball's struggles of closing out series has continued to close out the 2025 regular season.

The No. 17 Vols took game one at No. 8 Arkansas, but drop the series after an 8-4 loss to the Razorbacks on Saturday.

This marks a fifth-straight SEC series loss despite not being swept in any of the sets.

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One of Tennessee's (41-15,16-14 SEC) biggest issues remained leaving runners on base. The Vols stranded nine runners throughout the game.

This production at the plate, headlined by Andrew Fischer who went 3-for-4 with a home run, wasn't enough to make up for subpar pitching and play in the field.

Arkansas (43-12, 20-10) managed seven hits and took advantage of two errors from Tennessee to put up eight runs in the game. Tegan Kuhns started but had a mostly uncontrollable series of events go against him early before being pulled. He was pinned with four earned runs and five runs in his two-inning outing.

In relief, Austin Breedlove gave up a homer in his lone batter faced, Dylan Loy went an inning and allowed a run, Brayden Krenzel went 2.2 innings and allowed a run and Brandon Arvidson who threw 2.1 innings without allowing a runner.

Tennessee got started early. After singles from Gavin Kilen and Andrew Fischer to get the game started, Hunter Ensley produced a third straight single to score the first run of the game. That would be all it mustered, though.

In the bottom of the inning, after a double and walk, Arkansas used an infield single to score a runner from third to tie the game off Kuhns through one.

Tennessee got the run right back, though. The Vols used singles from Cannon Peebles and Manny Marin to get two on before Fischer roped a double to score one. With Kuhns working a 1-2-3 inning, it gave Tennessee a 2-1 lead after two frames.

The Vols would get another pair on base in the third, but stranded both. This meant six runners were left on base through just three innings.

In the bottom of the third, Kuhns gave up a single to open the inning. It appeared he had the runner picked off, but there was a balk called on the play. The announcer crew on SEC Network disagreed with the call.

This was followed by a routine ground ball to Dean Curley. However, the second baseman let the ball roll between his legs and the tying run to score. Off the error, Peebles had a throw that beat the runner to second on a steal attempt. Kilen couldn't apply the tag, though, to allow him to reach safely.

After the bases loaded with no outs, Breedlove entered for Kuhns. This didn't go well, though. He allowed a grand slam in his only batter faced to give the Razorbacks a 6-2 lead. Loy would enter with no outs and nobody on. He walked two but got out without any further damage.

In the fourth, Loy allowed a solo shot before Krenzel worked through the rest of the inning. By this point, the lead was up to five for Arkansas.

Tennessee would strand another pair in the fifth, to bring the total up to nine runners left on base. It appeared the Vols were going to get out of the bottom of the inning with a double-play, but it was legged out. A two-out RBI single pushed across another run to make it 8-2.

Tennessee finally got a response to the onslaught of runs in the sixth. After Marin walked to lead-off the inning, Fischer took one deep to right for a two-run home run to make it a four-run game.

From there, it was silence on both ends. The Vols remained a four-run arm's reach away from Arkansas as the Razorbacks dealt with any threat.

Tennessee now will prepare for the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Alabama. The tournament begins on Tuesday and will run through Sunday when the winner is crowned.

This year, it is a one-loss elimination bracket after the additions of Texas and Oklahoma make it a 16 team league.

The full bracket will be posted to VolReport.com once revealed.

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