Tennessee Tops Arkansas-Pine Bluff 9-1

Tennessee’s offense came out a little sluggish on a dreary Wednesday afternoon, but the Vols used a five-run sixth inning to propel UT to a 9-1 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff. The win is Tennessee’s sixth in its last seven games.

The Vols’ explosive sixth inning consisted of an Evan Russell RBI single — his first career hit — two hit batsmen and a two-run single from Andre Lipcius.

“That five-run inning gave us a breath, but we probably should have had that anyway. Our guys were in control of the game and doing the right things,” Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello said.

Tennessee shortstop Andre Lipcius finished the day 3-5 with a double and 3 RBIs.

“I take every at-bat the exact same so stats don’t really dictate how you think about yourself, because if you have confidence the whole time, you’ll be a successful baseball player,” Lipcius said.

Tennessee starter Sean Hunley went 4.2 innings, allowing four hits and no runs with one strikeout and one walk.

“He did well. You want your starter to give you a chance to win the game and I’ve harped on our starter lasting longer than theirs and he did both of those things,” Vitello said of Hunley.

Tennessee will return to action when it hosts the Tri-Star Classic this weekend, playing games against ETSU on Friday, Memphis on Saturday and MTSU on Sunday.