ARLINGTON, Texas — No. 9 Tennessee baseball suffered its first loss of the season in a 10-inning battle against Oklahoma in the Shriners Children's College Showdown at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Tx. on Saturday night.
The Vols found a response halfway through the game against the Sooners, but couldn't find an answer to Oklahoma's rally in the 10th and lost 5-1.
Oklahoma took the lead in the top of the fourth inning when Rocco Garza-Gongora hit an RBI single up the middle to give the Sooners a 1-0 lead, but Tennessee answered in the bottom of the frame with a Dylan Dreiling solo home run to even the score at 1-1.
The Sooners threatened in the seventh inning with two runners on in no-outs, but Tennessee pitcher Chris Stamos kickstarted the Vols' first triple play since 1997 to get out of the inning. Stamos dove to catch a popped-up but for the first out, and then threw the ball to Christian Moore, who tagged second and the runner from first to complete the play and end the threat.
OU broke through again in the 10th inning when John Spikerman drove in a run with an RBI double off Aaron Combs to get the Sooners back ahead 2-1, and Oklahoma found some insurance with three more runs to close out its side of the 10th up 5-1.
Tennessee used six pitchers in the defeat. Junior righty Drew Beam went 5.2 innings in his first start of the year and struck out two batters while allowing seven hits and one earned run. Combs got the most work out of the bullpen with 2.1 innings along with four K's and three earned runs as he got tabbed with his first pitching loss of the season.
The Vols will conclude play in the Shriners Children's College Showdown on Sunday night when Tennessee goes up against Baylor at 7:30 p.m. at Globe Life Field.
