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Alabama State baseball falls to No. 1 Tennessee in NCAA opener

Courtesy of Alabama State Athletics

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Alabama State baseball dropped its opener at the Knoxville Regional, falling to No. 1 national seed 10-0 Tennessee in front of a sell-out crowd at Lindsey Nelson Stadium on Friday night.

Tennessee (54-7) jumped out early with a run in the second and that’s as close as the Hornets could get despite getting a runner to third in the top half of the second inning. The Hornets four runners on including a runner at second in the top half of the ninth inning.

Alabama State baseball

Alabama State (34-24) was held to four hits by three Tennessee pitchers, all by different players. Kyler McIntosh (Columbus, Ind.), Dilan Espinal (Canovanas, PR), Christian Lopez (San Diego, Calif.), and Ian Matos (Toa Alta, PR) each picked up a hit in the loss.

Breon Pooler (Huntsville, Ala.), one of three pitchers used on the night for Alabama State, suffered the loss to fall to 10-3 on the season. He allowed three runs (all earned) on eight hits with three strikeouts in 4.2 innings. Payton Harris (Hattiesburg, Miss.) lasted 1.0 inning and Osvaldo Mendez (Carolina, PR) 2.1 innings in the loss.

How It Happened

  • B2 | Jorel Ortega doubled home Trey Lipscomb for the game’s first run (1-0, Tennessee).
  • B4 | Ortega hit the first home run for the Vols, a solo shot to center (2-0, Tennessee).
  • B5 | Tennessee added another run with a sacrifice fly to left by Jordan Beck to score Seth Stephenson (3-0, Tennessee).
  • B6 | Charlie Taylor squeezed home a run before Luc Lipcius singled through the left side. The inning continued with back-to-back home runs by Beck and Drew Gilbert (8-0, Tennessee).
  • B7 | Blake Burke hit a solo home run to right center to extend the lead (9-0, Tennessee).
  • B8 | Beck connected on his second home run for the final run of the game (10-0, Tennessee).

Up Next

Alabama State baseball will face Georgia Tech in an elimination game on Saturday at 12 pm (ET). Tickets will go on sale 90 minutes prior to the first pitch at Lindsey Nelson Stadium, and the game will be shown on ESPN+.

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