A day after Tennessee had to hold Mississippi State for a series-opening win, the Vols had to come from behind to claim the series on Friday.

Trailing by as many as five runs, Tennessee’s did its most damage at the plate with two outs and took advantage of two Bulldogs’ errors to win 12-8 at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

For the second-straight game, Mississippi State struck first, taking the lead on a Hunter Hines three-run home run off the batter’s eye in center field.

Dakota Jordan’s solo shot to right to leadoff the third extended the Bulldogs’ lead 4-0.

Tennessee (29-14, 10-10 SEC) batters had no problem making contact early but struggled putting the ball into play. Blake Burke changed that trend in the fourth with a single and Christian Scott hit pay-dirt in the following at-bat with a two-run homer to center to put the Vols on the board at 4-2.

Hines answered in the following frame, blasting his second home run of the game and third of the series to pull ahead 6-2.

Tennessee rallied in the fifth, playing four runs with two outs, beginning with Jared Dickey’s two-run home run.

Burke scored an unearned run and Griffin Merritt singled off the wall in left to score Christian Moore from second to pull within a run at 7-6.

Down 8-6 in the sixth, Tennessee passed the threshold with four runs, three of which came off of a Burke home run to take a 10-8 lead and Mississippi State (24-19, 6-14) never recovered.

Tennessee will go for its second conference series sweep on Saturday at 2 p.m. on the SEC Network.

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