Vols’ starter and Alabama native AJ Causey Gave up back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the first inning but didn’t allow another run through the rest of his outing. Dylan Dreiling, Blake Burke and Kaveres Tears each left the yard with home runs in Tennessee’s 11-3, firecracker-like win over the Alabama Crimson Tide to start conference play.
UT took a one-zip lead to start the game, with some help from Tide starter Ben Hess. Hess, who had allowed 11 walks in his five starts prior to Friday’s appearance, got Vols’ lead-off man Christian Moore out on a first-pitch pop up to the shortstop, gave up a base hit to Burke two pitches later and then handed out free passes to three of the next four batters (two of which came with two outs).