Morning News – 2/20

Quite a weekend in Knoxville. The Baseball team got out to a hot start, sweeping the Northern Illinois University Huskies, the Basketball team lost in Tuscaloosa, The Lady Vols beat Ole Miss on Sunday, Softball lost a heartbreaker to Texas.

Baseball Out to Hot Start 

Tennessee Baseball gave Serrano the best possible result in the opening series, a sweep. Vol starters pitched 12 scoreless innings across the entire series and the offense produced 24 runs.

MVP’s on the offensive side were Chris Fritts and Chris Pierce, the “Chris’ each knocked in 7 runs a piece and each had a three run home run on the weekend.

“I was proud the way we played can’t take it for granted,” Coach Dave Serrano said. “Double headers are hard to sweep. Sweeps are tough to come by no matter who you’re playing. We have to get to, to get back to. That’s what’s so good about playing. Some stuff came out that we’ll have to get back to the drawing board and fix. But to walk away with three wins, you have to be excited about that.”

Vols Fall 62-50 in Tuscaloosa 

The Vols winning streak ended Saturday at Alabama. Tennessee tied the game 32-32 in the second half, but the Tide would go on a 20-3 run and put the Vols away for good. Tennessee’s already minuscule chances of getting to the NCAA tournament are that much smaller.

The story of the game for Tennessee were the offensive struggles.

“We didn’t make shots,” said Cuonzo Martin. “What happens when you don’t make shots is you get a little hesitant, but you have to stay aggressive and shoot the ball.

Lady Vols Softball: Vols Fall 3-2 to Texas in the bottom of the ninth.

A two-run inside the park home run in the bottom of the ninth gave No.13 Texas the victory over the No. 7 Lady Vols.

Lady Vols Basketball: Vols hold on, defeat Ole Miss 66-56

The tandem of Glory Johnson and Shekinna Stricklen combined for 25 points to lead the Lady Vols to victory over Ole Miss.