Vols batter Bruins, Christian Moore ties season record
Tennessee’s final midweek game of its 2024 regular season was a short one.
The top-ranked Volunteers scored five runs in the first inning and cruised to a 10-0 whipping of Belmont before a crowd of 5,022 at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. Tuesday’s contest was halted after seven innings, which followed a sixth inning in which Colby Backus, Christian Moore and Reese Chapman homered for Tennessee.
“Everybody in the starting lineup other than one guy had an at-bat that they could kind of hang their hat on, which is awesome,” Vols coach Tony Vitello said. “No one got a full day, really.”
Tennessee improved to 43-10 heading into this weekend’s final Southeastern Conference series against No. 24 South Carolina, which is scheduled to begin Thursday night (6:30 on SEC Network+) in Knoxville. Belmont dropped to 24-28.
Moore’s home run was his 24th of the season, tying Tennessee’s single-season mark set by Sonny Cortez in 1998.
“I think that’s pretty cool,” said Moore, who was a sophomore boarding student on Baylor School’s 2019 Division II-AA state championship team. “I try not to think about that when I’m playing, but it’s something you’ll look back on when you’re older. If I break it, I break it, but obviously I want to win right now and keep going with this team.”
Moore reached on an error in his first at-bat and scored on Billy Amick’s oneout double to left-center field. Kavares Tears had an infield hit and Dylan Dreiling drew a walk to load the bases to set the stage for Hunter Ensley to break the game open early with a three-run double to left-center.
Tennessee was having to bounce back from Sunday afternoon’s 3-0 loss at Vanderbilt, which marked the first time the Vols had been shut out this season.
“We kind of knew we were going to have a good day today as an offense,” Moore said. “Obviously Sunday was disappointing, but it happens.
It’s part of baseball, but that’s how you bounce back.” The Vols had been
shaky on the mound in their last two midweek games against Lipscomb and Queens, splitting those contests, but Tuesday was very different as Dylan Loy, JJ Garcia, Matthew Dallas, Marcus Phillips, Austin Hunley and Derek Schaefer combined to rack up nine strikeouts while allowing only four hits.
“It would be a fun little debate as far as who was the best pitcher of the day,” Vitello said. “There are a lot of guys who could vie for that. It was exciting to see how well each of them threw the ball.”
Tennessee finished 13-1 in midweek games by the combined score of 155-40.
Hoop foes revealed
The SEC has announced every league member’s home and road opponents for the 2024-25 men’s basketball season, a season that will contain 16 institutions for the first time following the additions of Oklahoma and Texas. The conference is maintaining an 18-game league schedule in which every school will have two permanent opponents and a rotating foe that it will play home and away.
Tennessee’s permanent opponents are Kentucky and Vanderbilt, and its one rotating foe next winter will be Florida.
The Vols will have home games against Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Missouri, South Carolina and Vanderbilt. Their nine league trips will be to Auburn, Florida, Kentucky, LSU, Ole Miss, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt.
Dates, tipoff times and television information for Tennessee’s league contests will be released at a later date.
Football openers set for SEC teams
Four notable college football games on Aug. 31 involving SEC teams now have kickoff times and their television coverage.
Georgia and Clemson are vying in Atlanta at the Aflac Kickoff Game (formerly the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game), and that matchup will be televised by ABC at noon. ABC will also televise Florida hosting Miami at 3:30, as well as Texas A&M hosting Notre Dame at 7:30.
Alabama’s opener against Western Kentucky in Tuscaloosa will be shown on ESPN at 7. The Crimson Tide will be playing their first contest under coach Kalen DeBoer, which will follow the 17-season Nick Saban era that contained nine SEC championships and six national titles.