Tennessee baseball continues to make the task at hand hard.

A midweek contest against a Northern Kentucky squad on a four-game skid needed a late-inning boost to overcome, 12-6. Henry Ford provided the winning runs in the bottom of the eighth, reaching base on an error that scored two.

The Vols (21-12, 4-8 SEC) piled on six runs in the eighth inning, started by Ford. Blake Grimmer added an RBI single before Trent Grindlinger mashed his first-career home run to right for three more.

Grimmer continued his demolition of the baseball for Tennessee (21-12, 4-8 SEC). The redshirt sophomore second baseman unloaded on a pair of home runs in his 3-for-5 night at the plate against Northern Kentucky (13-8, 6-6 Horizon).

Nate Eisfelder records first start

Tennessee’s lineup endured minimal change after a rough offensive weekend, but it did see a freshman face. Josh Elander elected to give Nate Eisfelder his first-career start, slotting him ninth in the lineup while playing right field.

Eisfelder finished the midweek contest 1-for-2, with a single, a walk and a strikeout.

In his first at-bat in the second inning, Eisfelder roped a single to right field. He moved his way around to third base with a groundout and advancing on a wild pitch. Reese Chapman flew out, however, to keep him from coming home. He added a four-pitch walk in the fourth inning.

He made a strong read in right field to end the top half of the sixth inning on the defensive side, too. Eisfelder tracked the liner off Pierce Bauerle’s bat and gloved it down in right-center as his hat flew off to strand a runner on base.

Bottom of the order trauma

Tennessee couldn’t get Cade Arrambide, LSU’s eight-hole hitter, out on Sunday. Ethan Baoitto failed to get Northern Kentucky’s ninth batter, Hunter Friedberg, out in the third inning on Tuesday.

The Norse put together their most productive inning as the bottom of the order stepped to the plate. Seven-hole hitter, Ethan Thomas, began the rally by singling to lead off the inning, which Alex Brazer followed up with a single to put two on with no outs.

That brought Friedberg to the plate — a season .120 hitter with 50 at-bats. He worked the count full on Baiotto before sending the payoff pitch over the wall in right-center. Northern Kentucky tied the game at 3-all on Friedberg’s second blast of the year.

It bit Tennessee again in the seventh inning. Thomas carried a 0-1 pitch from Sawyer Deering over the wall for the second game-tying, three-run blast of the game for Northern Kentucky to knot the score at 6-all.

Northern Kentucky’s bottom third combined for four of the Norse’s five hits of the evening.

Brady Frederick deals in relief

After a four-pitch, two-homer appearance over the weekend, Tennessee’s best midweek arm looked comfortable against Northern Kentucky.

Brady Frederick entered a tie game during the third inning and began dealing. He retired the first nine batters he faced before a sixth-inning leadoff single. It was part of the 3.1 scoreless innings of relief he provided, allowing one baserunner and striking out three batters.

The Vols opted for the bullpen after a three-pitch strikeout to get the first out of the sixth inning.

It’s the fourth straight game a Tennessee pitcher has retired seven or more in a row. Landon Mack sat down 14 LSU batters, Cam Appenzeller put away 12 and Evan Blanco came out of the gate by retiring the first seven on Sunday.

Tennessee baseball hits the road for No. 9 Mississippi State on Friday, April 10.