Tennessee Baseball Game Notes - vs. MTSU (5/10-11)

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Tennessee Volunteers | Lindsey Nelson Stadium Media Relations: Cameron Harris u CHarri48@utk.edu u Office: (865) 974-8876 u Cell: (817) 408-7604 u Fax: (865) 974-1269 u UTSports.com

TENNESSEE (22-23, 5-19) vs. MTSU (15-32, 7-17)

2011 SCHEDULE (22-23, 5-19)

Home: 17-14 | Away: 5-9 | Neutral: 0-0 | Vs. Top 25: 2-10 Date FEBRUARY 18 Fri. 19 Sat. 20 Sun. 25 Fri. 26 Sat. 27 Sun. MARCH 4 Fri. 5 Sat. 6 Sun. 8 Tue. 9 Wed. 11 Fri. 12 Sat. 13 Sun. 15 Tue. 16 Wed. 18 Fri. 19 Sat. 20 Sun. 23 Wed. 25 Fri. 26 Sat. 27 Sun. 30 Wed. APRIL 1 Fri. 2 Sat. 3 Sun. 5 Tue. 7 Thu. 8 Fri. 9 Sat. 12 Tue. 14 Thu. 16 Sat.. 20 Wed. 22 Fri. 23 Sat. 24 Sun. 27 Wed. 29 Fri. 30 Sat. MAY 1 Sun. 6 Fri. 7 Sat. 8 Sun. 10 Tue. 11 Wed. 13 Fri. 14 Sat. 15 Sun. 17 Tue. 19 Thu. 20 Fri. 21 Sat.

Opponent (TV)

Time/Result

Milwaukee Milwaukee Milwaukee Canisius Canisius Canisius Bradley Indiana Morehead State New Orleans New Orleans Manhattan Manhattan Manhattan Manhattan Alabama A&M at Austin Peay *at Kentucky *at Kentucky *at Kentucky at Lipscomb *Ole Miss *Ole Miss (SS) *Ole Miss (SS) UNC Asheville

Knoxville, Tenn. • May 10

W, 4-0 W, 7-6 L, 9-6 W, 4-0 W, 6-2 W, 9-4 W, 7-3 L, 6-3 W, 10-8 W, 14-0 (7 Inn.) W, 18-4 W, 4-2 W, 11-5 W, 3-2 (7 inn.) W, 15-1 W, 9-1 W, 5-3 L, 5-3 W, 12-8 L, 7-3 W, 7-3 L, 6-1 W, 6-4 L, 8-0 W, 14-6

*at #3 Florida (CSS) L, 3-0 *at #3 Florida (CSS) L, 11-2 *at #3 Florida L, 9-1 Presbyterian College L, 10-6 *#3 South Carolina (ESPNU) L, 4-0 *#3 South Carolina L, 2-0 *#3 South Carolina (SS) L, 2-1 Appalachian State L, 6-5 *at Alabama (ESPNU) L, 2-8 *at Alabama W, 2-1 (7 inn.) *at Alabama W, 1-0 (7 inn.) Western Carolina Postponed *Georgia W, 5-4 (10 inn.) *Georgia L. 8-6 *Georgia L, 5-3 at Tennessee Tech Postponed *at Vanderbilt L, 10-1 *at Vanderbilt (CSS) L, 10-1 *at Vanderbilt *Mississippi State *Mississippi State *Mississippi State (SS) MTSU at MTSU *at LSU (CST) *at LSU (CSS) *at LSU Belmont *Auburn *Auburn *Auburn

L, 19-3 L, 16-5 L, 5-3 L, 5-2 7 p.m. 6 p.m. CT 7 p.m. CT 3 p.m. CT 1 p.m. CT 7 p.m. 6 p.m. 6 p.m. 2 p.m.

Home Games in Bold *-SEC Game 2011 Tennessee Volunteer Baseball Game Notes

Murfreesboro, Tenn. • May 11

TUESDAY, MAY 10 -- 7 p.m. (Knoxville) RHP Carter Watson (5-2, 4.18) vs. RHP Matthew Drake (1-1, 2.03) WEDNESDAY, MAY 11 -- 7 p.m. ET (Murfreesboro) LHP T.J. Thornton (1-0, 3.20) vs. RHP Daniel Palo (1-7, 6.46)

WEATHER FORECAST Tuesday Wednesday

BROADCAST INFORMATION Live Stats/Blog: www.UTSports.com Twitter: www.Twitter.com/Vol_Baseball Radio: FM 99.1/99.3 "The Sports Animal" with John Wilkerson and Kyle Hixson

Scattered T-Storms 88° | 67° | 50%

Partly Cloudy 90° | 65° | 10%

NOTING THE VOLUNTEERS The Tennessee baseball team is set for a busy week with five games on its schedule after dropping three contests to Mississippi State last weekend to fall to 22-23 overall and 5-19 in SEC play. The Volunteers will close out a four-game homestand and open a home-and-home mid-week series against Middle Tennessee State at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. UT will then hit the road for a Wednesday night showdown against the Blue Raiders in Murfreesboro before trekking to Baton Rouge, La., for a three-game set at LSU. In the series versus Mississippi State, the Big Orange offense struggled to come up with the big hit, stranding 32 runners and going 11-for-61 with runners on base and 5-for-33 with runners in scoring position. The team's top hitter was senior Khayyan Norfork who was 7-for-14 (.500) on the weekend with four RBIs and a run scored. He also played spectacular defense, despite being forced into action at shortstop following an injury to junior Zach Osborne on Friday night. When a bruised finger kept Osborne out of the starting lineup on Saturday, it snapped a streak of 148 consecutive starts. Prior to that game, the last time Osborne was not Tennessee's starting shortstop came against Radford on March 3, 2009, a span of 795 days. Four of Norfork's seven hits came in the Friday night contest against the Bulldogs when he tied his career high in hits with a pair of doubles and two singles. Fellow senior Josh Liles also posted a four-hit effort, the fifth of his career, that night as well SCOUTING THE BLUE RAIDERS Middle Tennessee State enters this week's home-and-home series with an overall record of 15-32 after dropping its last six contests, including being swept at home last weekend by Florida International. Offensively, a pair of outfielders pace the Blue Raiders as junior Justin Guidry is hitting at a team-high .356 clip with three home runs and 27 RBIs. The team's most potent weapon, however, has been senior Will Skinner. The Walters State product and Murfreesboro native has accounted for nearly half of the team's 30 home runs with a remarkable 14 of his own. He also tops the squad with 41 RBIs and a stellar .660 slugging percentage. For Tuesday night's contest, Middle Tennessee State will send sophomore Daniel Palo to the mound for his 12th start of the season. The 6-4 right-hander is 1-7 with a 6.46 ERA on the year. He ranks third on the team with 66.1 innings pitched, during which he has struck out 47 but walked 44. Opponents are hitting .306 off of him. On Wednesday, the Vols will face an outfielder turned pitcher in junior Matthew Drake. A junior college transfer from Wallace-Hanceville Community College, he started the year as an outfielder for the Blue Raiders before making the transition to the mound. The conversion has been successful so far though, as Drake is 1-1 with a 2.03 ERA in seven appearances, including one start. In 13.1 innings of work, he has struck out five and walked three, but has allowed just 10 hits and limited opposing hitters to a .213 batting average.

PROBABLE UT STARTERS

Avg. HR RBI Notes

C 1B 2B 3B SS LF CF RF DH

.279 .253 .268 .321 .363 .221 .277 .208 .300

21 43 33 13 8 7 1 9 20

Ethan Bennett Fr. Davis Morgan Jr. Josh Liles Sr. Matt Duffy Sr. Khayyan Norfork Sr. Chris Fritts Jr. Andrew Toles Fr. Chris Pierce Jr. Drew Steckenrider So.

5 1 0 5 3 2 1 1 0

22 9 21 36 36 11 22 4 0

Hit first SEC home run at Vanderbilt (4/30) Was 4-for-11 (.364) with 2 RBIs vs. MSU last weekend Needs 8 hits to become 15th UT player with 200 Is 29-for-80 (.363) w/ 5 HRs when hitting third Hitting .625 (5-for-8) with the bases loaded Leads the team with seven outfield assists 19 SBs are the fourth-most ever by a UT freshman Has 14 starts on the season (9 RF, 4 LF, 1 DH) Saw first action at the plate at Vanderbilt Page 1


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