Tennessee baseball picked up a Saturday win to even the weekend series against Kentucky on Saturday. 

The Vols picked up a 9-4 win behind five home runs. Drew Beam got the start on the mound for Tennessee (32-7, 11-6 SEC) and finished the day with 4.1 inning pitched while giving up seven hits and four runs. Aaron Combs closed the day out, working 4.2 scoreless innings and earning the win against the Wildcats (32-6, 15-2). 

At the plate, Dylan Dreiling led the way with a two homer day, bringing in three runs. 

The rubber match is set for Sunday at 1 p.m. ET. 

How it happened: Tennessee gets off to hot start

Tennessee baseball got off to a scorching hot start in Lexington on Saturday. Christian Moore got the party started with a home run to right field. Blake Burke followed it up with a bomb of his own. 

Kavares Tears roped a double to right center to score Billy Amick and make it 3-0 in the top of the first. Dreiling and Dean Curley added RBI doubles to take an early 5-0 lead heading into the bottom half of the first. 

The five first inning hits for Tennessee matched its total from Friday night. 

It took the Wildcats no time to respond with Ryan Waldschmidt with Beam’s first pitch getting taken yard. Mitchell Daly launched a single to score another run and cut Tennessee’s lead to just three. 

Beam’s day came to an end in the fourth, calling on Aaron Combs to escape the inning. 

Tears quickly got a run back with a solo homer in the second before a quiet couple of innings followed. Dreiling broke the silence with a solo homer to right field. 

Curley reached on a fielding error and was later hit in by Moore to add some more insurance in the fifth inning. The Wildcats responded with a pair of runs of their own in the bottom half of the fifth.

Dreiling hit his second homer of the game in the eighth, making it another five-run lead. 

Dreiling’s homer sealed the scoring for Tennessee, and Combs closed the game out to even the series against Kentucky.