KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – No. 15 Tennessee completed its series sweep of Iona with a 12-2 run-rule victory on Sunday afternoon at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
Freshman Drew Beam made his second start and earned his first-career win after tossing 3.1 scoreless innings. The Murfreesboro native gave up one hit and struck out four batters on the afternoon.
UT (7-0) homered four more times on Sunday as Cortland Lawson, Jordan Beck, Evan Russell and Jared Dickey all went deep for the Big Orange, who have already hit 24 home runs this season and had 13 long balls in the series.
Dickey, a redshirt freshman, capped an impressive week by reaching base in all five of his plate appearances, going 3-for-3 with four runs, two walks and a home run, setting career highs in all those categories.
Trey Lipscomb had yet another solid day at the plate as well, going 2-for-3 with a double and two RBIs. The senior third basemen batted .833 with five runs, three doubles, two triples, two homers and 14 RBIs for the series.
Russell was the only other Vol to finish with multiple hits on the day, going 2-for-2 with a solo home run and two runs scored. Beck led the team with three RBIs after driving in the game’s first run with an RBI groundout and hitting a mammoth two-run homer in the second inning.
The Gaels (0-6) scored their only two runs in the top of the sixth on a two-out single from Nick Forney to cut the lead to 11-2.
The Vols will cap off their season-opening homestand with a Tuesday midweek matchup against ETSU. First pitch is slated for 6:30 p.m. and tickets for the game can be purchased at AllVols.com.
NOTABLE
FAST STARTS UNDER VITELLO: With this weekend’s sweep of the Gaels, the Vols have now started at least 7-0 in each of the last four seasons.
SERIES SCORING RECORD: Tennessee set a new record for runs in a series, outscoring Iona 68-3 over three games this weekend. The previous record was 59 runs in a three-game sweep over Tusculum in 1909.
LIPSCOMB’S MONSTER WEEKEND: Senior third baseman Trey Lipscomb had a week for the record books, batting .786 with three doubles, two triples, three homers and 16 RBIs over four games played.
Lipscomb hit for the cycle and drove in nine runs in Friday’s series opener before two more multi-hit and multi-RBI games on Saturday and Sunday. For the year, Lipscomb is slashing .577/.586/1.308 and leads the team with nine extra-base hits, four homers and 20 RBIs.