Vols Fall at #8 Kentucky, 8-3

Saturday, May 13

Lexington, KY

2:00 PM

University of Tennessee

26-21, 7-17

Kentucky

35-16, 17-9

Tennessee

Kentucky

May 13, 2017 | Baseball

Box Score

May 13, 2017

Box Score

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- A solo home run from freshman Andre Lipcius gave the Volunteers an early lead over No. 8-ranked Kentucky, but the Wildcats came back to take an 8-3 win on Saturday and clinch the weekend series at Cliff Hagan Stadium.

With the loss, Tennessee now stands at 26-21 (7-17 SEC), while the Wildcats move to 35-16 and 17-9 in conference play this year.

Lipcius gave UT its first lead in the series with a solo home run in the top of the second, marking the first homer of his career with the Big Orange.

The lead was short-lived as UK's Riley Mahan answered with a two-run shot in the bottom of the second, giving the Cats a 2-1 edge.

A pair of two-run homers by Mahan and first baseman Evan White extended Kentucky's lead to 6-1 in the third.

In the fourth, Volunteer catcher Danny Sirven collected his first career RBI for the Big Orange, driving one up the middle to score Lipcius from third and make it 6-2 in favor of UK.

Senior Jordan Rodgers later cranked his team-leading ninth home run over the left field wall in the fifth, narrowing UK's lead to 6-3.

An RBI-double by Kentucky pushed the Cats to a 7-3 lead in the sixth, where the score would hold until a solo homer by Marcus Carson made it an 8-3 ballgame for the final.

Freshman Garrett Stallings was charged with the loss in his seventh start of the year, surrendering six runs on eight hits over 2.1 innings of work.

Will Neely bridged together a 3.1 middle-innings relief appearance, allowing just one run with two strikeouts against the Cats. Lefty Will Heflin threw the final 2.1 innings, allowing one run on three hits.

TENNESSEE QUICK HITS

With the loss, Tennessee moves to 156-139 in its all-time series against Kentucky, including a 54-43 mark in games played in Lexington, Kentucky.
With two home runs on Saturday at Kentucky, the Vols recorded their fifth multi-homer game of the season, most-recently having also knocked two against Belmont on May 9.
Jordan Rodgers' nine home runs this year are the most for a Vol in a single season since VFL and current Detroit Tigers prospect Christin Stewart hit 15 home runs in 2015.
Three Volunteers have knocked their first career home runs for UT this week, including: senior Max Bartlett vs. Belmont (5/9), freshman Luc Lipcius at Eastern Kentucky (5/10) and twin brother, Andre Lipcius (5/13).
Saturday's attendance at Cliff Hagan Stadium: 3,793
On Deck for the Vols: Tennessee's series finale against No.8-ranked Kentucky begins Sunday, May 14 at 1 p.m. ET at Cliff Hagan Stadium, with game action available for viewing on SEC Network+ stream.