KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – #1/1 Tennessee swept Missouri with a 4-3 victory Sunday at Lindsey Nelson Stadium, and made history as the first team to ever begin SEC play 12-0.
The Vols (31-1, 12-0 SEC) notched their seventh sweep of the season with the win, tying a program record and have now won 23 games in a row. That ties LSU for the second-most consecutive wins by an SEC team ever.
Drew Beam threw 6.1 innings Sunday and fanned a career-high seven batters as he earned his seventh victory of the season. The freshman allowed two runs on six hits before giving way to Will Mabrey. Mabrey tossed 1.1 innings in relief and was followed by Redmond Walsh out of the bullpen.
Walsh also threw 1.1 innings, allowing one run on two hits as he secured the win for UT and picked up his fifth save of the year.
Luc Lipcius started the scoring in the bottom of the third as he rocketed a solo home run off the batter’s eye in center field for his eighth long ball of the year. With a runner on in the home half of the fifth, the graduate senior belted his ninth homer of the season, a two-run shot deep to right to give the Vols a 3-0 lead.
UT tacked on another run in the fifth courtesy of a Drew Gilbert double to left. With Jordan Beck on first, Gilbert laced a 2-1 pitch to left-center as Beck raced around to score the Vols’ fourth run of the game.
Mizzou (18-11, 3-9) battled back with a pair of runs in the top half of the seventh, cutting the Vols’ lead to 4-2. Junior Nander De Sedas doubled to right-center to drive home Mike Coletta for the Tigers’ first run of the game. In the next at-bat, Josh Day hit an RBI groundout to short that allowed Ty Wilmsmeyer to score from third.
The Tigers threatened to tie the game in the top of the ninth as they put two runners on first and second with nobody out. After a De Sedas groundout advanced Wilmsmeyer to second and Lovich to third, Day hit a sac fly to center to score Lovich and cut UT’s lead to 4-3.
Walsh battled back and shut down the rally as he got Mizzou’s Trevor Austin to hit a game-ending groundout to third.
Austin Marozas got the start on the mound for Mizzou and threw 5.0 innings, allowing four runs on five hits. The right-hander suffered the loss and is now 1-1 on the year.
UP NEXT
Tennessee will play Tennessee Tech in a neutral-site game at Smokies Stadium in nearby Kodak, Tennessee, next Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. ET before hosting Alabama at Lindsey Nelson Stadium next weekend.
NOTABLES
ANOTHER QUALITY START: Drew Beam had another quality outing Sunday and has now held opponents to two runs or fewer in his last four starts.
REDMOND SAVES THE DAY: With Redmond Walsh’s save on Sunday, he now has 21 career saves. The graduate senior is now two behind VFL Todd Helton for the most in program history.
LUC’S BOMBS: Luc Lipcius’s two home runs against Missouri on Sunday is the second multi-home run game of his career. His last multi-home run game came against Liberty on June 5, 2021.