NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The duo of Brandon Arvidson and Tegan Kuhns was impressive on the mound, but the bats were unable to cash in on No. 20/21 Tennessee’s productive pitching performances in a 3-2 extra-innings loss against Vanderbilt on a cold Friday night at Hawkins Field.
The Commodores (15-12, 3-4 SEC) outhit the Volunteers (18-8, 3-4 SEC), 10-5, for the night and walked it off in the bottom of the 10th inning with a two-out RBI single by Logan Johnstone.
UT had a chance to take the lead in the top of the 10th with runners on second and third with two outs, but Vandy reliever Brennan Seiber struck out Blake Grimmer to end the threat and set the stage for the Dores’ walk-off win.
Levi Clark was the only Tennessee player with more than one hit on the night, finishing 2-for-4 with a pair of singles, including the game-tying RBI knock in the top of the eighth inning.
Brodie Johnston led Vanderbilt offensively with a four-hit outing to go along with an RBI while Johnstone and Ryker Waite also finished with two hits apiece. Korbin Reynolds added a solo home run in the bottom of the fifth to give the Commodores a 2-0 lead before the Vols scratched across runs in the sixth and eighth innings to knot things up at two.
Junior right-hander Connor Fennell kept UT off balance all night long, finishing with nine strikeouts while allowing just two runs (one earned) and one walk on three hits over 7.1 innings of work. Seiber earned the win for VU after tossing 2.2 shutout frames out of the bullpen.
Arvidson fared well in his first-career SEC start, striking out seven while allowing two runs on four hits and two walks in five innings pitched. Kuhns piggybacked Arvidson with 4.1 innings of work, allowing one run on five hits while striking out six in his first relief appearance of the year, but was stuck with the loss to fall to 1-3 on the year.
UP NEXT: The Big Orange will look to bounce back and even this weekend series on Saturday afternoon when the two in-state rivals square off at 2 p.m. ET on the SEC Network.
