Tennessee baseball is off to its best start in program history.
The No. 2 Vols finished off its series sweep of St. Bonaventure on Sunday in a style that has become routine, run-ruling the Bonnies, 13-2 in seven innings at Lindsey Nelson Stadium to move to a school-record 16-0.
TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM
Bigger challenges await Tennessee, which is less than one week away from the start of SEC play, but the Vols have shown few weaknesses through the first four weeks of the defense of its national title.
Their latest triumph was headlined by the freshmen. Three first-year players in designated hitter Levi Clark, outfielder Chris Newstrom and catcher Stone Lawless hit home runs. Newstrom's sixth-inning blast was good for three runs. Lawless' second longball walked it off early.
Junior outfielder Dalton Bargo also homered in the sixth.
Another freshman, Jay Abernathy who made the start in center field in place of Hunter Ensley, paced Tennessee at the plate, going 2-for-3 with an RBI.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The St. Bonaventure lead-off man reached in each of the first two innings with out recording a hit, and twice Tennessee got out of the frame unscathed.
Tanner Franklin, though his outing was short, tossed a couple of strikeouts in his one inning of work before Brandon Arvidson threw three-straight after giving up a walk in the second.
Tegan Kuhns did the the same in the third, allowing another walk before Conner Vercollone reached third on a stolen base attempt that catcher Stone Lawless was charged a throwing error on in a high throw to second.
The Vols weren't unable to get out of the inning unscathed this time. Chris Hoalcraft singled up the middle to score Vercollone and give the Bonnies a 1-0 lead, but the damage was limited there after Lawless gunned down another steal attempt at second and Kuhns ended the frame with a strikeout.
Tennessee started to put together its best offensive inning in the bottom third. It started with a Dalton Bargo walk, was followed by Dean Curley single to center and then Gavin Kilen drew another walk to load the bases.
The Vols, which walked off the Bonnies in seven innings with a Manny Marin grand slam the night before, looked prime for another. A wild pitch scored their first run instead.
After drawing even, Andrew Fischer flew out to center to score Curley to give Tennessee its first lead. Levi Clark followed with a two-run home run over the wall in right to stretch that lead to 4-1.
Abernathy added to a strong start the plate with a singe through the right side to score Marin. Lawless mashes the Vols' second long ball of the inning with a no-doubter to left-center that opened up a 7-1 lead.
St. Bonaventure got one back in the fifth on Gavin Constantine's RBI single, and then held Tennessee scoreless and hitless for two-straight innings in the fourth and fifth.
It set the Bonnies up for their biggest threat yet in the sixth, loading up the bases with two outs. Austin Hunley, who took over for Ryan Combs after a leadoff walk earlier in the frame, escaped from the jam with two pop ups.
Dalton Bargo led off the sixth with a solo shot to right for the Vols' first score since that 7-run third, putting Tennessee up 8-2.
Chris Newstrom blew the game open with a three-run home run off of the batter's eye six at-bats later to put the Vols on the cusp of the run-rule at 11-2 heading into the seventh.
St. Bonaventure tried to avoid the run-rule by loading the bases again, but a ground out and long throw from Marin again left the Bonnies empty-handed.
Lawless landed the final blow. After Abernathy reached base again with a walk, Lawless' second home run of the afternoon made its way to the porches in left and got Tennessee past the run-rule threshold for the second-straight game.
UP NEXT
Tennessee's weekends will get tougher going forward.
The Vols open SEC play against No. 7 Florida (15-2) at Lindsey Nelson Stadium next week, but will get one more midweek tune-up before then.
Tennessee hosts West Georgia (8-6) on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. on SEC Network+.
– TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM.
– ENJOY VOLREPORT WITH A PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION.
– SUBSCRIBE TO THE VOLREPORT YOUTUBE CHANNEL.
– FOLLOW VOLREPORT ON TWITTER: @TennesseeRivals, @ByNoahTaylor, @RyanTSylvia, @Dale_Dowden, @ShayneP_Media.
