Faulty defense from the Charleston Southern Buccaneers allowed the Tennessee Volunteers to pull away and secure an 8-2 win on Wednesday at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
With the Vols leading 4-2 in the bottom of the seventh, the game was busted open with two Buccaneer misplays. The bases were loaded with one out after Jeff Lockwood and Mike Hornsby hit a pair of pinch-hit singles and shortstop Zach Osborne was hit by a pitch.
Then right fielder Josh Liles hit a double play ball to Buccaneer second baseman Scotty Radabaugh, but Radabaugh missed it, and the ball trickled into the outfield. Two runs scored on the error, and Liles and Osborne ended up on second base and third base.
After UT second baseman Cody Grisham flied out for the second out of the inning, center fielder Kentrail Davis hit a ball that was muffed, scoring both Liles and Osborne. Now with an 8-2 lead, UT cruised to the victory.
With the win, the Vols improved to 12-16 and snapped a four-game losing streak after getting swept by Georgia over the weekend and losing to East Tennessee State on Tuesday.
The team had 13 men left on base for the night. UT head coach Todd Raleigh said with first baseman and team RBI leader Cody Hawn out of the lineup, players may be trying to fill the gap. Hawn was out of the lineup on both Tuesday and Wednesday, ailing from a viral infection, and Raleigh said they do not expect him back soon.
“We had some tough ones this weekend, and last night (against East Tennessee State on Tuesday), we didn’t play well,” Raleigh said. “The loss of Cody Hawn kind of had a hangover a little bit, and I think that made guys try to do too much last night. Guys were trying to make up for it.”
Raleigh said Hawn brings something to the team that the Vols will miss while he’s gone.
“We miss that left-handed bat,” Raleigh said. “We miss the guy who knows how to hit with runners in scoring position.”
For much of the game, UT was sustained by solo homers that led off innings. Liles hit a solo shot in the first at-bat of the game for the Vols. Left fielder P.J. Polk added one to start the bottom of the second. Liles hit an RBI groundout to score third baseman Tyler Horne. Then, to begin the bottom of the fifth, Cody Brown, playing first base for Hawn, hit a towering shot that cleared the fence and landed just to the right of the left-field foul pole.
But since the Vols’ long balls amounted to one run each, the Buccaneers could stay in the game, scoring two runs off an RBI groundout by Blake Hunt in the fifth and a home run from first baseman Nick Chinners in the sixth. The close game was then broken open in the seventh.
UT left-handed starter Adam Adkins threw five innings of one-run ball for the win, recording five strikeouts and giving up just three hits and one walk. The few runners Adkins allowed on base were advanced on four wild pitches.
Adkins said he hit a roadblock in the fifth inning, his last inning and also the inning where he threw two of his wild pitches.
“I kept getting behind on batters, and I’d have to throw high or middle-in fastballs, and they’d just sit on it and rip it,” Adkins said. “That’s what happens when you get behind. You’ve got to make good pitches, and they’ll make good hits.”
UT goes on the road to face the Alabama Crimson Tide for a weekend series beginning Friday at 7:35 p.m. in Tuscaloosa, Ala. The Vols will look to improve a 1-8 record in SEC play thus far this season.