Landon Mack walked off the mound to a standing ovation. 

The faithful at Lindsey Nelson Stadium saluted their new Saturday starter for posting a new career-high 11 strikeouts, but more importantly, holding a stingy Kent State team to just two runs. Just over two innings later, he became the losing pitcher. 

Tennessee baseball’s 2-1 loss to the Golden Flashes saw the Vols not tally a hit with a runner on base and fail to score a run after their first batter of the game. Tennessee had its chances, but couldn’t come up with any big knocks. 

“We had ducks on the pond all night and didn’t execute at all up to our standards,” head coach Josh Elander said. “A lot of times in this league or regardless of who you’re playing now in college baseball, you don’t get a lot of redos. There are none.” 

The Vols had some success from the guys who led off the bottom half of innings over the course of the evening, four of their five hits coming in table-setting scenarios. Tennessee quite literally had nothing after that. 

In the first, second and fifth innings, the Vols reached a runner to third with less than two outs, coming up empty on the scoreboard during all three occasions. In the second, Jay Abernathy was tagged out in a rundown following a decision to break for home plate on a sharp ground ball hit to the drawn-in Kent State infield. He made the correct move that his coaches preach. 

“That’s a standard fundamental contact play right there,” Elander said. “You force the defense to play catch. If they do play catch like they did, then we get Ariel (Antigua) up into scoring position. We’ve done it over the years and that’s something we’ll stick with all the time.”

On the hill, the pair of Tennessee hurlers had their way. Mack and Brandon Arvidson combined to strike out 16 Golden Flashes and allow just a single earned run. Mack tied the longest outing for a Vols’ pitcher this season while Arvidson fanned five in a strong season debut. 

Even with their winnable effort, frustration with the low production from their offense is not a thought at the front of their minds. 

“We win and lose as a team,” Arvidson said. “It happens. It’s baseball. It’s a really good team we’re playing, and we’ll just get back to the next game.” 

Aside from the slow night at the dish, Tennessee fell victim to three errors in the field. A pair of blunders in the fifth inning ended up being all Kent State needed to gain firm control of the ballgame. 

No matter the team or the level, the formula for losing baseball doesn’t change. 

“I think you find out a lot about your team after the first loss,” Elander said. “We’ve made it a big theme around here to show up on Sundays better than we did last year in 2025. So this is our first test. Guys should be bouncing around, ready to rock and roll because I know Kent State will.”