Tennessee baseball returned to its struggling form at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
In alternative fashions of previous conference losses, the Vols failed to receive a strong outing from their starter and never rebounded in a 7-4 loss to Ole Miss. The bullpen came through with 3.2 innings of one-hit baseball across three different young arms.
Reese Chapman blasted a first-inning home run, and that’s the last light of day the Vols (25-13, 7-9 SEC) saw Friday night.
Landon Mack struggled with Ole Miss’s (28-11, 9-7) lineup. The right-handed ace allowed a season-high six earned runs with the help of three home runs in 104 pitches. Despite the high pitch count, Mack only made it into the sixth inning before being pulled as the Rebels maneuvered deep into at-bats. He struck out five and walked two, giving up seven hits.
Mack worked on long ball
Tennessee’s Friday night starter had given up a home run in five of six SEC starts this season. Ole Miss took advantage of the righty and tagged him for three in a 5.1-inning start.
Hayden Federico, Tristan Bissetta and Judd Utermark each left imprints on baseballs that left Mack’s hand on Friday. Bisetta and Utermark did it consecutively.
Ole Miss worked Mack for 23 first-inning pitches, which helped lay the groundwork for the arsenal he was delivering. After falling into a 0-2 count to lead off the second, Federico blasted the next pitch off the scoreboard to tie the game at 1-all. Mack let that be the only damage of the inning, retiring the next three in order.
After Mack recorded two outs in the third inning, the Rebels went back to work. Bissetta took the 1-1 offering over the scoreboard in right to put Ole Miss ahead — and pitching coach Josh Reynolds came out for a visit.
That visit left nothing productive for the starter as Utermark took the next pitch 370 feet over the wall for a 3-1 lead.
Vols waste 5th inning opportunity
Ole Miss plated runs in four consecutive innings, fresh off a frame where it did work inside the ballpark. The Rebels put two runs on the board in the top half to push the lead to 6-1, while the Vols stepped to the plate with just three hits accumulated.
Jay Abernathy stepped forward with a single to left-center to put a leadoff baserunner on, and Garrett Wright took a pitch off the body. Tennessee had two on with no outs for the heart of its order.
Reese Chapman flew out for the first out, then Henry Ford brought Abernathy home on a bloop single to left. But Blake Grimmer ended the prime opportunity with a routine grounder to the second baseman, ending in a 4-6-3 double play to seize any more runs.
Abernathy boosts bottom of struggling order
Tennessee’s fifth, sixth and seventh batters in the order went hitless on Friday. Levi Clark put together an infield single.
Abernathy was there to pick up the bottom of the order, though, doing his job to turn the lineup over. The sophomore second baseman went 2-for-4 at the plate with a home run — the third of his career.
His first hit came in the fifth inning when he reached base on a leadoff single that flipped the lineup over. It eventually turned into a run.
Abernathy’s contributions increased in the seventh inning when the slugger mashed a two-run shot over the right field wall in a hurry. It launched off his bat at 21.5 degrees, but went 337 feet to cut the Tennessee deficit to three runs.
Tennessee and Ole Miss return to the diamond on Saturday for a 4 p.m. ET pitch.
