March 26, 2000
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – All weekend long Kentucky found a way to win against Tennessee, but onSunday their luck finally ran out as the Vols salvaged the series finalewith the Cats 12-3.
After losing two extra inning games against Kentucky, Tennessee explodedoffensively. Designated Hitter Jeff Christensen led the Tennessee attack,going 4-4 with two doubles, three runs scored and two RBIs as Tennesseepounded out 17 hits against five Kentucky pitchers.
“We had to come back today and win, no doubt, we can’t get swept at home.We felt like we weren’t going to lose,” Christensen said.For the second day in a row every Tennessee starter had a least one hit asfive Kentucky pitchers surrendered a season high 12 runs and the Vols tookadvantage of four Kentucky errors.
“We didn’t play well, the errors caught up with us. I didn’t feel like wecompeted on the mound like we had been earlier this year and that caught upwith us too,” UK Coach Keith Madison said.Tennessee got single runs in each of the first three innings againstKentucky starter Rob Corrado before Kentucky scored two runs in the fourth.RBI groundouts by Seth Morris and Jason Wolfe pulled Kentucky to within arun at 3-2.
Tennessee put the game away in the sixth inning, scoring four times on twoKentucky errors, a wild pitch, four stolen bases and four base hits to takea 9-3 lead. Tennessee added three more runs in the seventh against JohnHooker.
“I thought we played well, we came out and pitched well, played good defenseand got some timely hits,” Tennessee Coach Rod Delmonico said. “The gamewas very close in the first five innings, it could have gone either way. Wegot some hits and they didn’t.”
Tennessee starter Joe Bartolino gave up all three Kentucky runs in 5 2/3innings of work. With two on and two outs in the sixth, Brandon Crowe cameon in relief to retire Kentucky pinch hitter Robert Newton on a fly ball toright. Crowe went the rest of the way for the Vols, pitching 3 1/3 inningsof no-hit ball.
Kentucky was led by third baseman Vince Harrison who was 3-3 with a runscored. Second baseman Andy Green extended his career high hitting streakto 15 with a bunt base hit in the third.
Despite the loss Kentucky won it’s first SEC series of the season, one thatMadison hopes to build on.
“At this point I want to look at the big picture and look at how the guyswon the series. I thought the guys played real hard,” he said.Delmonico looked at the series as a positive for his club as well.
“If you look at it we were a couple of runs from sweeping and that’s the waywe have to look at it.”
