Winnable pitching and a quiet offense make for a frustrating combination.
Tennessee baseball lacked its clutch gene in the middle game of its series with Kent State, dropping its first game of the season 2-1 at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. The No. 13 Vols stood ice cold at the plate with runners on base, committed a series of baserunning mistakes and turned in three fielding errors to allow Kent State (4-2) to gain control.
Tennessee (5-1) hitters went 0-for-15 with runners aboard.
Vols starting pitcher Landon Mack turned in a quality outing, registering a career-high 11 strikeouts over 6.2 innings while only allowing one earned run. Brandon Arvidson provided 2.1 innings of scoreless relief, tallying five punchouts. Henry Ford’s leadoff solo shot acted as the only Tennessee run.
Early fireworks
After Mack emphatically pumped his fist after a dominant first inning on the hill, the early highlight reel didn’t stop scrolling by.
Ford kept his side of the bargain, but not before falling behind 0-2 in the first Vols at-bat of the afternoon. He flipped the advantage quickly into his favor, though, driving a pitch deep in the zone down the right field line for a leadoff solo shot.
Tennessee had a run on the board quickly this time around after waiting five innings to post anything in the first game of the weekend set.
Back out in the field, the Vols’ outfield defense rose to the occasion. Mack got himself in a bind with a pair of walks in the second inning, setting up a prime RBI scenario for the Golden Flashes. Left fielder Blaine Brown had second thoughts.
The 6-foot-5 two-way player showcased his upper-90s arm, uncorking a perfect throw from the outfield to gun down a runner at the plate. Looking on from center field, Jay Abernathy wanted to join in on the fun. An inning later, the fleet-footed utilityman saved a run of his own, sprawling out to make a diving play and keep the visitors scoreless.
Defensive woes squander lead
Shades of sloppy fundamentals from last year’s Tennessee team reappeared to help Kent State get life.
The Vols committed two errors in the fifth after the Golden Flashes notched a pair of singles. A bouncing ball that skipped over Ford’s glove at the hot corner knotted things at one, in turn allowing baserunner Sawyer Solitaria to take third and keep the RBI potential alive for the middle of Kent State’s order.
Tennessee failed to turn a tough double play an at-bat later, and it trailed for the second time in the series.
Rally killers
As they did in the early portions of game one, the Vols couldn’t get the bats going when the table was set.
Tennessee’s leadoff men in each inning did their jobs, providing their group’s only hits up until the sixth stanza. When they got on, the sticks that followed failed to sustain the momentum. The Vols reached runners to third with less than two outs on a trio of occasions, but still didn’t produce a run.
Baserunning blunders from Abernathy and pinch-runner Finley Bates served as some of the other glaring reminders of a tough offensive night.
Macktion
The Rutgers transfer couldn’t change his offense’s deficiencies.
Mack overcame some early control issues and some bad defensive breaks to muscle towards a solid second appearance in his new home. The right-hander regularly sat in the upper-90s with his fastball, an important element in his career-best 11 punchouts.
The Columbus, New Jersey, product tied the longest outing by a Tennessee starter this season, hurling 63 of his 91 pitches for strikes. He still departed the game on the hook for a loss.
The Vols will be back in action on Feb. 22 for the rubber match of the series with Kent State.
