Tennessee baseball shuts out Georgia for series win

Tennessee baseball improves to 24-5 after another SEC series win. The Vols welcomed Georgia to Lindsey-Nelson Stadium over the weekend after getting its first SEC series win last weekend over Ole Miss.

The Vols came out of the gate struggling with a rough 16-2 loss to the Bulldogs. This is the first time Tennessee has been run-ruled this season, and it has been a rare occurrence since Tony Vitello has taken over as the manager.

Georgia is one team that can compete with Tennessee regarding the ability to run up the score against anyone in the country, which showed on Friday night. The Bulldogs brought the heat on Friday and even scored 11 runs in their loss on Saturday.

Vitello's club was able to bounce back on Saturday, putting up 16 runs of their own on their way to their first win of the series. Dylan Dreiling recorded seven RBIs in only two swings on Saturday. He went 2-for-4 from the plate, and both hits were home runs. The first home run was a first-inning three-run home run, and the second was a fifth-inning grand slam. 

The Vols came into the rubber match looking to win their second-straight series win. It took four innings for Tennessee's bats to get a couple of runs to home plate, but thanks to a dominant pitching performance from Zander Sechrist and Nate Snead, the Bulldogs totaled only six hits and zero runs.

Sechrist pitched six innings, allowing four hits and striking out seven. It was the dominant performance the Vols needed off the mound to put them in a position to win the series, and Sechrist delivered. Snead pitched the game's final three innings, totaling two hits and one strikeout after pitching one and a third inning on Saturday.

Vitello discussed what he saw out of his team in the series win and throughout the weekend after the tough start on Friday. "Resilient. Resilient," Vitello said. "I think toughness is there and I think team chemistry is there. I think there’s some good togetherness. But when Friday goes on, it either expands a little bit or you come closer together."

Tennessee will take a few days off before heading to Auburn for their next SEC test. The Tigers are 1-8 in SEC play so far this season. The Vols will enter the series with a 24-5 record and a 5-4 record in conference play.