{"id":6667,"date":"2022-05-27T16:52:53","date_gmt":"2022-05-27T20:52:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.volnation.com\/freaknotes\/?p=6667"},"modified":"2022-05-27T16:52:54","modified_gmt":"2022-05-27T20:52:54","slug":"1-vols-kick-off-sec-tournament-with-10-1-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.volnation.com\/freaknotes\/2022\/05\/27\/1-vols-kick-off-sec-tournament-with-10-1-win\/","title":{"rendered":"#1 Vols Kick Off SEC Tournament With 10-1 Win"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>HOOVER, Ala. \u2013&nbsp;<\/strong>Top-ranked Tennessee continued its dominant stretch both on the mound and in the batters box, defeating eighth-seeded Vanderbilt, 10-1, in Game 7 of the 2022 SEC Tournament at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rain had washed out the preliminary SEC Tournament schedule and Tennessee (50-7) had to patiently wait for their turn to take the field, but when that opportunity came, the Volunteers did not miss a beat. They plated double-digit runs for the 25<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;time this season and went for six runs in the first three innings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the rubber,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/universityoftennesseeathletics.cmail20.com\/t\/d-l-ftdlde-waedhd-n\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Camden Sewell<\/a>&nbsp;secured his sixth victory of the year as he teamed up with&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/universityoftennesseeathletics.cmail20.com\/t\/d-l-ftdlde-waedhd-p\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Will Mabrey<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/universityoftennesseeathletics.cmail20.com\/t\/d-l-ftdlde-waedhd-x\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ben Joyce<\/a>&nbsp;to sit the last nine Vanderbilt batters down in order. Starter&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/universityoftennesseeathletics.cmail20.com\/t\/d-l-ftdlde-waedhd-m\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Blade Tidwell<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/universityoftennesseeathletics.cmail20.com\/t\/d-l-ftdlde-waedhd-c\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kirby Connell<\/a>&nbsp;were strong in the early innings, allowing just five hits between the two and only surrendering one run.<br><br>UT jumped out early, as they have all year, when&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/universityoftennesseeathletics.cmail20.com\/t\/d-l-ftdlde-waedhd-q\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Drew Gilbert<\/a>&nbsp;lined a double to the gap in left center in the home half of the first inning, scoring&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/universityoftennesseeathletics.cmail20.com\/t\/d-l-ftdlde-waedhd-a\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Seth Stephenson<\/a>. But, it was the offensive explosion in the third inning that paved the way for a dominating Tennessee victory.<br><br>Stephenson, who has been outstanding since assuming the role as the Big Orange leadoff man, came around to score on a double to the wall from&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/universityoftennesseeathletics.cmail20.com\/t\/d-l-ftdlde-waedhd-f\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jorel Ortega<\/a>. Gilbert and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/universityoftennesseeathletics.cmail20.com\/t\/d-l-ftdlde-waedhd-z\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Evan Russell<\/a>&nbsp;drove in the next two runs with hits, upping their impressive on-base streaks to 20 and nine games, respectively.<br><br>After scoring the first seven runs in a traditional sense, that of stringing together hits, Tennessee reverted to its powerful form in the later innings, mashing the ball out of the park.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/universityoftennesseeathletics.cmail20.com\/t\/d-l-ftdlde-waedhd-v\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Blake Burke<\/a>&nbsp;pounded a pinch-hit fastball in the fifth over the opposite-field wall in left center. Then,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/universityoftennesseeathletics.cmail20.com\/t\/d-l-ftdlde-waedhd-e\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Cortland Lawson<\/a>&nbsp;obliterated a middle-in fastball out of the confines of Hoover Met in the home half of the seventh, showcasing the all-around offensive prowess UT possesses.<br><br>The two shots registered impressive numbers on the SEC&#8217;s Trackman data recording system. Burke&#8217;s homer traveled 406 feet and left the bat at 110 mph, while Lawson&#8217;s drive went 433 feet with a 103 mph exit velocity.<br><br><strong>UP NEXT:&nbsp;<\/strong>The Volunteers will await their next opponent as they face the winner of LSU and Kentucky in the final game of action Friday, May 27<sup>th<\/sup>, beginning at approximately 9 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>NOTABLE<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>DOWNING THE &#8216;DORES:&nbsp;<\/strong>Tennessee earned its fourth victory of the season against Vanderbilt. The last time UT posted four victories against VU was back in 1994. The Vols also won the SEC Regular-Season Championship and the SEC Eastern Division Tournament that season.<br><br><strong>CLIMBING THE LIST:&nbsp;<\/strong>UT hit its 139<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;home run of the season, a figure which is tied for 11<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;all-time in Division I single-season home run history.<br><br><strong>75-75 CLUB:&nbsp;<\/strong>In the fourth inning,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/universityoftennesseeathletics.cmail20.com\/t\/d-l-ftdlde-waedhd-s\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Trey Lipscomb<\/a>&nbsp;drove in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/universityoftennesseeathletics.cmail20.com\/t\/d-l-ftdlde-waedhd-g\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Seth Stephenson<\/a>&nbsp;with his 75<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;hit of the season. That RBI also marked the senior&#8217;s 75<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;run batted in of the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HOOVER, Ala. \u2013&nbsp;Top-ranked Tennessee continued its dominant stretch both on the mound and in the batters box, defeating eighth-seeded Vanderbilt, 10-1, in Game 7 of the 2022 SEC Tournament at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium. Rain had washed out the preliminary SEC Tournament schedule and Tennessee (50-7) had to patiently wait for their turn to take the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":6668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennessee-vols-baseball"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.volnation.com\/freaknotes\/files\/2022\/05\/image-5.jpeg?fit=900%2C490&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.volnation.com\/freaknotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.volnation.com\/freaknotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.volnation.com\/freaknotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.volnation.com\/freaknotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.volnation.com\/freaknotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6667"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.volnation.com\/freaknotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6669,"href":"https:\/\/www.volnation.com\/freaknotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6667\/revisions\/6669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.volnation.com\/freaknotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.volnation.com\/freaknotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.volnation.com\/freaknotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.volnation.com\/freaknotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}