#1 Tennessee hits four home runs in 12-6 victory over Indiana to advance to regional final | Local Sports

Top-ranked Tennessee’s powerful offense was on full display in Saturday night’s 12-6 win over Indiana in front of another sold-out crowd at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

The Big Orange hit four home runs in the first four innings, including a Billy Amick grand slam in the top of the third, to build an early lead.

A pair of two-run home runs in the second by Dean Curley and Christian Moore allowed UT to take a quick 4-0 lead before adding five more runs in the second, four of which came on a swing by Amick.

Cal Stark joined the home run parade with a solo shot toward the porches in the top of the fourth inning, his seventh four-bagger of the season.

A Kavares Tears single resulted in two more Tennessee runs in the fifth that extended the lead to 12-4 and ended up being the last runs of the night for the Big Orange.

Andrew Behnke’s career-high 3.1 innings of relief highlighted another solid night from the pitching staff. The second-year lefty earned the win to improve to 3-1 on the year after allowing just three hits and no runs and striking out three in his outing.

After the Hoosiers (33-25-1) scored a pair of runs in the eighth inning to cut their deficit to six, the Vols turned to Aaron Combs in relief and the redshirt junior right-hander recorded four strikeouts in the final 1.2 tickets to finish. the game.

Five different players finished with two hits on the night and Tennessee had 13 hits in the game.

Leadoff hitter Devin Taylor hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the third for Indiana, while Andrew Wiggins and Josh Pyne added a pair of hits for the Hoosiers.

Starting pitcher Connor Foley allowed just four hits, but walked seven and hit two batters to allow eight runs that night in just 2.1 innings.

Next, the Vols will await the winner of Sunday’s elimination game between Indiana and Southern Miss, which begins at noon ET. First pitch for Tennessee’s game against the winner is scheduled for 6 p.m. Television information is still to be determined.

Amick’s third-inning grand slam was the 12th of the year for the Vols, who are tied for second in a single season in NCAA history with Oklahoma State’s 1996 team. Amick is the third UT player this season to hit two grand slams, joining Cal Stark and Blake Burke.