University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
Georgia State
Vols Crush Georgia State, 15-3
March 05, 2000 | Baseball
Vols get another solid pitching performance
KNOXVILLE (March 5)-Tennessee took a three-game series sweep of Georgia State by pounding the Panthers 15-3 on Sunday at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
With the win, the Volunteers move to 16-4 on the season and extend their winning streak to nine games while Georgia State falls to 10-4 on the year.
It was a team effort for the Vols as four players had multiple hits and five totaled multiple RBI. John Massey had one of his best games of the season by going 3-4 at the plate with two RBI. Kris Bennett extended his hitting streak to 12 games by going 3-5 at the plate while driving in two runs.
For the third straight day, the Vols jumped out to an early lead thanks to a RBI single by Jeff Christensen that scored Kris Bennett and Chris Burke to give the Vols a 2-0 lead in the first. The two RBI single by Christensen in the first inning was his sixth RBI of the series and his 20th of the season.
Tennessee took a 9-0 lead in the second thanks to a seven-run, six-hit inning. The seven runs tied a season high for runs scored in an inning by the Vols. Chris Burke started the scoring bonanza after hitting a RBI double to center field. On the next at-bat, Kris Bennett hit a 2 RBI double to give the junior third baseman five doubles on the season. Sophomore Brandon Hopkins hit his second home run of the series in the fourth inning to extend the Tennessee lead to 11-0. Hopkins led all Tennessee batters in the three-game series by going 6-11 at the plate with 5 RBI for an average of .545.
The Vols got another outstanding pitching performance on the afternoon this time from Joe Bertolino. Bertolino pitched five innings while striking out eight batters. Georgia State's Brian McCartney scored off a RBI single by Paul Schlosser in the fifth inning to end Bertolino's steak of 16.1 scoreless innings.
Georgia State got their final runs of the day off a two-run home run by designated hitter Scott Youngbauer in the top of the seventh.
Tennessee will face Eastern Kentucky in a single game match-up on Wednesday, March 8 at 3 p.m. at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
