KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — No. 9 Tennessee baseball came alive in the second inning of a mercy rule victory against ETSU on Wednesday night at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
The Vols put up 11 runs in the second frame, ten of which came with two outs, to secure a 16-0 win against the Bucs. The 16 runs Tennessee scored in the win were more than the Vols' first four games combined.
Tennessee went into the second inning with a 1-0 lead and Cannon Peebles got the second-inning surge started with an RBI fielder's choice to make it 2-0 with two outs. Tennessee then rattled off ten more runs, including three home runs, to close the inning up 12-0. Freshman Dean Curley hit his first career home run to make it a 7-0 ballgame, Christian Moore's first homer of the season made it 10-0, and then Billy Amick left the yard to turn it into a 13-0 lead.
Redshirt junior Colby Backus added an exclamation mark with a three-run home run in the sixth inning to put a bow on the victory.
Freshman pitcher Matthew Dallas got the start for Tennessee and pitched three scoreless innings, but fellow freshman and former Pigeon Forge standout Dylan Loy came away with the win in his first career appearance for UT. Loy pitched one scoreless inning with two strikeouts. Tennessee also sent out Marcus Phillips, Brayden Sharp and JJ Garcia to close out the game, and the trio combined for just one hit allowed and two strikeouts.
