Landon Mack got the Saturday night start for Tennessee baseball, as the team searched for an answer after Friday night’s upset loss to Missouri.
Despite the slow start, the Vols bounced back with a 4-2 win over Missouri, lining things up for a game three rubber match on Sunday. Freshman Cam Appenzeller led the way out of the bullpen, throwing 4.2 shutout innings.
“That was huge,” Levi Clark said. “I know when we all saw him jogging in, we all knew he was getting the job done, but I mean, that was huge.
That was electric.”
Just like the night prior, the Tigers (16-7, 2-3 SEC) jumped on the Vols’ (16-7, 2-3 SEC) starters in the early innings. After a solid first inning of work from Mack, where he sat down three straight batters, the Tigers quickly jumped to a 2-0 lead by the middle of the second inning.
Mack walked the second inning’s leadoff batter, before a wild pitch and a balk moved Kaden Peer all the way to third base. Blaize Ward drove home the runner from third with a single before a fielder’s choice scored the other runner, Kam Durnin, the next at-bat.
Trailing 2-0 early, the Vols’ offense needed some juice, but after a quick two outs, it seemed that a quick inning was once again on tap. Instead, following a Stone Lawless walk before a wild pitch advanced him to second base, true freshman Trent Grindlinger snuck a hit past second base to score the Vols’ first run of the night.
“He’s an easy guy to bet on, and you know, just staying on the ball, not trying to do too much, ” Tennessee head coach Josh Elander said. “He gets the first run of the game and takes his walks and just quality, quality, quality. That’s where he seems to keep bringing it, and the moment it wasn’t too big for him, so it was good.”
Henry Ford got the third inning started with a line-drive double to left field. Blaine Brown moved him over to third before Manny Marin used a fielder’s choice to tie the game at two runs apiece.
Mack settled back in, even with his pitch count continuing to rise. After allowing a one-out single, the right-hander then sat down the next two batters to end the frame.
For the second inning in a row, the Vols led off the bottom half of the inning with a leadoff double down the left-field line. Stone Lawless ended on second after the hit, after a Grindlinger flyout moved him to third, a Levi Clark sacrifice fly to deep center field brought him home. The 3-2 lead served as the Vols’ first lead of the entire series against the Tigers.
In the top of the fifth, the Tigers were once again threatening, this time with the bases loaded and no outs to show for it. The situation forced Mack out of the game. He finished with just four innings of work while allowing two earned runs, three walks and six hits.
In relief came the freshman Appenzeller, who struck out the next two before forcing a weak flyout to shortstop, ending the threat and keeping the Vols in the lead.
Some much-needed insurance came in the form of a wild pitch in the bottom of the sixth, as Garrett Wright scored from third to push the Vols’ lead to 4-2. Despite the offense going quiet for the rest of the game after the run in the bottom of the sixth, Appenzeller handled the final five innings of work without allowing a single run to cross.
His final line was 4.2 innings, allowing just two hits, walking one batter, striking out seven and allowing no runs.
Bo Rhudy entered in relief for Appenzelle. Despite Pierre Seals working the count to full, Rhudy forced a groundout to shortstop, ending the game.
“Our pitching staff, there’s a bunch of guys who trust each other,” Appenzeller said. “So, you know, whatever position the other guy puts another guy in, the dude who came out is gonna have confidence for the other guy.”
The Vols win sets up the rubber match Sunday afternoon against Missouri. The first pitch is at 1 p.m. ET at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
