ForumsThe Tennessee Volunteers baseball team lost the series opener against Alabama (32-21, 13-15 SEC) on Thursday night at Lindsey Nelson Stadium by a final score of 11-3.
The Vols (30-24, 12-16) fell behind early and were never able break through against Alabama starting pitcher Jimmy Nelson, who pitched a complete game for the Tide.
In the first inning, with a runner on second base, Alabama first baseman Clay Jones ripped an 0-2 pitch over the right field wall for a home run, giving his team a 2-0 lead.
Jones reached base again on a leadoff walk in the fourth inning. He later scored from third on a sacrifice fly that put Alabama on top 3-0.
With two runners on in the seventh, P.J. Polk misjudged what looked to be a catchable fly ball to shallow left field. Both base runners scored on the play and Alabama built its lead to five.
Tennessee finally got on the board in the bottom of the seventh inning. After a leadoff single by Josh Liles, Blake Forsythe hit a towering blast off the scoreboard in right field that cut the deficit to three.
But Alabama plated six runs in the final two frames en route to the 11-3 victory.
Offensively, Forsythe’s home run was the high point for Tennessee. Cody Hawn led the team with three hits and knocked in the other lone run of the night.
Steven McCray was credited with the loss. He allowed four runs in 6.2 innings of work while throwing 123 total pitches.
Tennessee and Alabama will face off again on Friday night at 7:00 p.m. in game two of the series.
Post Season Watch: Tennessee entered Thursday’s game fighting for its Southeastern Conference Tournament life. The Vols were tangled in a four way tie for seventh place in the league with Alabama, Kentucky, and LSU. Those four teams are battling for the two remaining spots in Hoover.
Kentucky lost its series opener to Georgia and LSU outscored Mississippi State in Baton Rouge on Thursday night. Heading into Friday, Tennessee and Kentucky are one game behind LSU and Alabama.
Since, the Vols would be the odd man out in the case of a three-way tie with Kentucky and LSU, Tennessee must avoid that scenario and there are a few different ways it can happen. Each of these assume Tennessee is able to defeat Alabama on Friday and Saturday.
The first case is for LSU to sweep Mississippi State. The Vols, with two wins over Alabama, would finish no worse than eighth under this scenario because Tennessee holds the tiebreaker over Kentucky.
Otherwise, the second case would be for Mississippi State to pull out wins in the final two games against LSU, putting the Vols one game ahead of the Tigers.
If LSU and Tennessee each get two wins in their respective series, then Kentucky must lose at least one of its final two games against Georgia for Tennessee to avoid the three-way tie and move on to Hoover.
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