KNOXVILLE – No. 1/1 Tennessee baseball took down in-state foe Lipscomb, 5-1, on Tuesday night at Lindsey Nelson Stadium to win its 20th consecutive game, adding on to its program record win streak.
Jordan Beck tallied the only multi-hit performance of the evening, while scoring a pair of runs and driving in one. Seven Vols in total tallied a hit, five going for extra bases.
Tennessee (28-1, 9-0 SEC) got excellent performances from a number of pitchers as eight toed the rubber, amassing 14 strikeouts as a team and only allowing six base runners. Ben Joyce earned the first win of his career, punching out three batters in two innings without allowing anyone reach base. Mark McLaughlin locked down the first of his career, striking out four batters over the final 1.2 innings.
Beck got the scoring started in the first, crushing a ball high off the wall in right center. As the Lipscomb outfielder leapt to make the catch, the ball bounded away and the Volunteer right fielder rounded the bases and got into third with a stand-up triple. A few pitches later, a wild pitch skipped away from the Bisons’ catcher to allow Beck to score the opening run.
Back-to-back hits to start off the second inning brought in another run for the Vols. Trey Lipscomb led things off with a curling double down the left-field line before Luc Lipcius smoked a single to left center to increase the lead to 2-0 after two innings.
Cortland Lawson and Beck added to the lead in the fifth and sixth innings. Lawson sent a towering blast over the porch in left field, his seventh big fly of the season. An inning later, Beck smashed an inside fastball out of Lindsey Nelson Stadium. His shot came off the bat at 110 mph and flew 450 feet for his sixth long ball of the year. Tennessee led 4-0 through the middle innings of the game.
Lipscomb (15-14) got on the board and cut its deficit to three runs in the top of the eighth on an RBI groundout by Tiger Borom, but that was as close as the Bisons would get.
The Vols struck for one more run in the bottom of the inning as Jared Dickey laced a pinch-hit single into right field to lead things off. Kyle Booker, pinch running for Dickey, scored the final Big Orange run later in the frame on a Drew Gilbert sacrifice fly.
UP NEXT: Tennessee welcomes Missouri to Rocky Top for a weekend series kicking off at 6:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon. It is All Vol Weekend as the Big Orange play a pair of night games in the series with the Tigers on Friday and Saturday. Weather permitting, there will be a pregame block party on Pat Head Summitt Street prior to Friday’s contest and postgame fireworks after Saturday’s game.
NOTABLE
BLADE IS BACK: Preseason first-team All-American Blade Tidwell made his first start of the 2022 season, going two innings and striking out four. The sophomore made his season debut last week in the midweek game against Western Carolina, coming out of the bullpen.
MIDWEEK MADNESS: Tennessee holds a perfect 8-0 record this season in midweek games. The Vols currently have the most midweek wins of any top-10 team in the D1Baseball.com Top 25.
CAREER FIRSTS: Two Volunteer pitchers tallied milestones on Tuesday. Ben Joyce earned his first-career win while Mark McLaughlin logged his first-career save for the Big Orange.