Tennessee cruises against Florida, wins 8-2

On Friday night in Gainesville, it didn’t take long for the Tennessee offense to bury the Florida Gators.

Down their top starter due to injury, Florida turned to Ryan Slater on the mound. Unfortunately for him, he ran into a redhot Volunteer offense. Tennessee roughed him up for seven runs in the top of the second inning, blowing this one open early.

A string of hits by Evan Russell, Luc Lipcius, Christian Moore, Cortland Lawson and Jordan Beck ended up plating four runs, and then Trey Lipscomb stepped up to the plate. He promptly drove yet another homerun out of the ballpark — a three-run shot to bring the Tennessee lead to 7-0.

The Gators got on the board in the third with an unearned run, and added one more in the bottom of the fifth. But that’s all that they would get off of Chase Burns on this night.

Burns bounced back with 6.1 innings pitched, giving up just two hits on the night. He struck out five on his way to his seventh win of the season. Ben Joyce and Redmond Walsh came out of the bullpen to lock this one down.

Tennessee cruised after that explosive second inning, taking care of the Gators, 8-2. The Volunteers have just one game left on Tony Vitello’s suspension before getting him back for Sunday’s matchup in Gainesville.

First pitch for Saturday is set for 6:30 p.m. ET (SEC Network+).