Tennessee baseball's pitching comes alive to stave off elimination in the SEC Tournament

Tennessee baseball's pitching put together a clutch performance against No. 4 Texas A&M to avoid elimination from the SEC Tournament. The Vols defeated the Aggies 7-4 and will advance to the loser of Vanderbilt and Mississippi State in the quarterfinals on Friday. 

The Vols dropped its first game of the SEC Tournament to Vanderbilt 13-4 in a game where neither the pitching or hitting could get anything going their way. The Vols joined the rest of the SEC's top four seeds to lose their first game for the first time since 2010. 

Tony Vitello's squad wasn't going to allow its early loss to hinder its performance on Thursday. The pitching staff showed up after being treated like batting practice by Vanderbilt the day before, and the offense was able to bring around some base runners, unlike in Wednesday's game. 

Chris Stamos started the game for Tennessee and went 3.1 innings, allowing one run on one hit before being pulled. AJ Causey came in relief, pitched a stellar four innings, and allowed one run. Kirby Connell came in to finish off the Aggies and allowed two runs over the final two innings but was able to seal the deal for the Vols. 

While the Vols did a better job hitting and bringing runners in to score, there were still some missed opportunities that could cost them if they don’t capitalize on them later in the postseason. 

Tennessee had bases loaded twice against A&M in back-to-back innings, with some of their better hitters on the plate, and they were only able to get one run in each inning. While that’s not necessarily a negative, it didn’t inflict the damage it could have if the Vols could have kept hitting and brought multiple runners home in each inning. 

The Vols totaled seven runs on ten hits, which is much better than their performance against Vanderbilt and something that can be built on after a slow start to the tournament. Kavares Tears showed out at the plate, hitting three for five with four RBIs and a home run. 

Tennessee could need more power at the plate on Friday when they will face the loser of Vanderbilt and Mississippi State. It's do or die for the Vols from here on out, and they will be playing win-or-go-home baseball until the end of the SEC Tournament.