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Photo Credit: Ian Cox/Tennessee Athletics
By Griffin Hadley
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee baseball defeated the Northern Kentucky Norse in front of a record-breaking crowd in the Knoxville regional.
After being briefly silenced due to a lead-off home run from the Cleary Simpson, the Lindsey Nelson crowd was rocking, and the Volunteers put on a show for their home crowd.
“We’ve been in plenty of situations this year where things didn’t go the way we wanted,” Tennessee third baseman Billy Amick said. “We’re going to treat it the same no matter what is going on.”
After converting for just one out, Chris Stamos was replaced by AJ Causey who proceed to shove for six and two-thirds. Causey was the MVP of game one, allowing just four hits, two runs, and one walk. The right-hander struck out nine silencing the feisty Northern Kentucky offense.
“What he did for us was enormous,” Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello said when asked about Causey’s outing.
In the bottom of the second Reese Chapman put the Vols on the board after he stretched an RBI single into a two-bagger thanks to a fielding error. The second inning run was the first of a three-inning stretch of scoring from Tennessee.
After reaching home in the second, Kavares Tears drew a walk with the bases loaded in the third, bringing in another run. NKU starting pitcher Tanner Gillis gave up one more in the frame after a Dean Curley sacrifice fly.
Gillis was able to limit the Vols early on, however the Tennessee offense found success in their second time through the lineup, stringing together quality at-bats and taking advantage of early mistakes.
After three innings the Vols led 3-1, crawling away from the Norse and continuing to inflate Gillis’ pitch count. Billy Amick blew the game open with a three-run shot in the fourth, extending the Tennessee lead to 6-1. Amick scored three runs on the day, the most of anyone in Tennessee’s lineup.
NKU reliever Nick McClanahan had his best outing of the season, only allowing one hit and one run in three and two-thirds. The Northern Kentucky offense got two back after a solo home run in the sixth and an RBI groundout in the seventh, however, home runs from Hunter Ensley and Dylan Dreiling added three more insurance runs for the Vols.
Each time the Norse showed life Tennessee answered, avoiding any added stress of a comeback from the scrappy four-seed. Despite a solid showing from McClanahan, the Vols offense proved too much, putting runs on the board in five different innings.
“The guys played pretty good ball tonight,” Vitello said. “They knew ahead of time they were going to be in a very competitive game, and it was good for us to get back on the field and compete.”
Tennessee will now focus in on their second regional matchup against the Indiana Hoosiers who defeated Southern Mississippi in the first game of the Knoxville Regional.
“You’ve got a team that had injuries early in the year that they had to overcome,” Vitello said about Indiana postgame. “They’ve got a pretty proud winning tradition…as they worked through some issues, they started to find themselves.”
The number one overall seeded Tennessee Volunteers will attempt to start regional play 2-0 tomorrow vs IU with first pitch set for 6 p.m. EST. No. 2 seeded Southern Miss and No. 4 seeded Northern Kentucky will face off in an elimination game to start the day.