Tennessee takes rubber match, series from No. 14 Texas A&M

After several near misses this season, Tennessee finally put together a complete weekend of baseball and won a series over a ranked team when it defeated No. 14 Texas A&M 6-4 on Sunday to take two of three from the Aggies.

The game started rather inauspiciously for the Vols, with Texas A&M taking a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning on RBI base hits from Hunter Coleman and Will Frizzell.

Tennessee answered in the third inning, however, taking a 3-2 lead after Brodie Leftridge homered off the left field foul pole, Jay Charleston scored on a wild pitch and Andre Lipcius drove in Pete Derkay with an RBI single.

Leftridge scored again in the fourth when Charleston doubled to left field to extend the Tennessee lead to 4-2.

Texas A&M refused go down without a fight, as Chris Andritsos crushed a two-run homer in the sixth inning to tie the game.

The home run muddied what was an otherwise good start for Tennessee starter Will Neely, who threw 5 ²⁄₃ innings and gave up four earned runs on nine hits.

This was the point where Tennessee had been unable to recover in several games this season, but the Vols fought back in the home half of the sixth, re-taking the lead on a Justin Ammons RBI single.

The Vols added one more run in the seventh on a Benito Santiago solo home run.

Garrett Crochet and Chase Wallace combined for 3 ¹⁄₃ innings of scoreless relief for the Vols.

The win was Tennessee’s seventh in conference play this season (24-18, 7-11), equaling last season’s SEC win total with 12 conference games remaining.

Tennessee will return to action on Tuesday vs. Tennessee Tech in Knoxville before traveling to Athens next weekend for a three-game series vs. No. 23 Georgia.