Wednesday Recap

Two games, two victories. The SEC was a perfect 2-0 on Wednesday night as Tennessee and seventh-ranked Kentucky walked away with victories over ETSU and Xavier.

In the case of the Vols, they were able to take down the Bucs with relative ease. The jumped out ahead 1-0 in the first inning and were hardly tested after that. They would find themselves leading 2-1 entering the bottom of the fifth, and that’s when things started to get out of hand. The Vols put up three runs that inning, two runs in the following inning and then one more in the seventh to push themselves to an 8-1 victory. The win puts UT at 21-17 on the year.

Jordan Rodgers had himself a night at the plate. The Vols third baseman went 2-3 with a double and a home run with three RBI to boot. Rodgers’ double was his 10th of the year and he hit his sixth longball of the season too. The three RBI that he drove in gives him 27 on the year. Jeff Moberg got in on the fun too, as the leadoff man for the Vols picked up his third triple of the season and 22nd RBI. Luc Lipicius and Justin Ammons joined the XBH company, each hitting doubles.

Will Neely stood tall on the mound, giving Tennessee exactly what they needed. Neely threw seven innings and allowed four hits, one run, had five strikeouts and just one walk. Daniel Vasquez and Eric Freeman pitched soundly in relief.

Kentucky meanwhile had to earn it a little bit, but wound up winning 6-0 over the Musketeers. The ‘Cats and Muskies were scoreless through the first 4 1/2 innings before UK finally struck. They picked up their first run in the fifth inning thanks to a sacrifice groundout by Evan White. Two innings later, the Wildcats erupted for five runs in the seventh inning. The big blows in the inning were attributed to White, who hit a 2-RBI double and Kole Cottam, who socked a two-run homer. Zach Reks also added an RBI in the inning with a single. UK used six pitchers in the shutout victory with Zack Thompson getting the win. Thompson allowed one hit over six innings and struck out five but walked three.

It’s a pretty light night ahead of us as far as baseball goes. Before a huge serving of games comes to us on Friday, only two will be played again tonight just like on Wednesday. These ones will have some more meaning though as they’re conference matchups. No. 14 Arkansas will host Ole Miss while No. 11 LSU takes the road to Tuscaloosa to battle the Alabama Crimson Tide.

In the case of the standings, these ones figure to be impactful. Two games separate the Razorbacks (12-6 SEC record) and the Tigers (10-8 SEC record) in the SEC West right now and the Hogs, of course, are just one game back of Mississippi State (13-5 SEC record). The Tigers have the easier competition here as the Tide are 2-16 in SEC play and 15-26 overall. Arkansas, meanwhile, faces a 25-16 Ole Miss squad that is 9-9 in conference play and could prove to be a bit dangerous.