University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
Florida Atlantic
Patrick Hicklen Pitches Vols Past Florida Atlantic
March 02, 2002 | Baseball
March 2, 2002
Minneapolis -- Tennessee snapped a two-game losing streak with a 5-2 win over the Florida Atlantic Blue Wave at the Hormel Foods Classic in the Metrodome. The win evened the Volunteers record in the round-robin tournament at 1-1, tied with the Alabama, Minnesota and the Blue Wave heading into the final day of action.
Tennessee (5-9) will face the homestanding Minnesota Golden Gophers (1-7) Sunday at 4 p.m. ET. Alabama (10-1) takes on Florida Atlantic (7-5) in the other matchup at Noon ET.
After struggling in his first two starts, Patrick Hicklen (2-2) returned to the form that got the Vols to the 2001 NCAA Super Regional and College World Series. He followed up his 5 2/3-inning no-hit performance against Eastern Michigan last week with another solid outing against Florida Atlantic.
Hicklen struckout a career-high 12 while holding the Blue Wave to two runs on eight hits in his third career complete game. He was only touched for single runs in the second and sixth innings.
Adam Smith went 3-for-4 with two RBI to pace the Vols, while LJ Bierbaum and Mike Cox had two hits apiece for the Blue Wave.
Danny Core (0-2), who was roughed up for three runs in the first inning, kept the Vols at bay for the next six innings, retiring 16 of 17 and 10 straight at one point. He worked out of a jam in the seventh before leaving in the eighth with a season-high eight strikeouts.
Tennessee broke out on top with a three-run first inning on three hits. Smith started the scoring with an RBI single, followed by Dennis Gomez' RBI double. Smith would later score on groundout.
The Blue Wave then scratched for a run in the bottom of the second as Shaen O'Connor singled home Cox who doubled to lead off the inning.
They tacked on one more in the sixth as Bierbaum singled home Mike Valdes to cut the lead to 3-2.
Smith's third hit plated Brandon Hopkins who tripled earlier to give Tennessee a two-run cushion at 4-2 in the eighth.
Walter Sevilla added an insurance run for Tennessee in the ninth as he scored on Jordan Czarniecki's groundout for a 5-2 lead.
